NEW YORK – Verismo Therapeutics said on Tuesday that it raised $17 million in a second pre-Series A financing round, which it plans to use to continue advancing development of its autologous KIR-CAR T-cell therapies including its clinical candidate SynKIR-110 for solid tumors and its preclinical candidate SynKIR-310 for blood cancers.
Verismo is conducting a Phase I clinical trial, dubbed STAR-101, of SynKIR-110. In that trial, Verismo is evaluating the cell therapy's safety, feasibility, and maximum tolerated dose in 42 advanced ovarian cancer, cholangiocarcinoma, or mesothelioma patients.
Verismo's KIR-CAR T-cell therapies are similar to CAR T-cell therapies but involve attaching an NK cell membrane to anchor to the cell's surface receptor, allowing the cells to avoid exhaustion.
The financing news follows Verismo's $7 million pre-Series A financing round announced in May. In total, the University of Pennsylvania spinout has now raised $50 million since launching in 2020.
This recent financing round was co-led by DongKoo Bio, HLB Innovation, and HLB.