Umoja Biopharma Secures Over $100 Million in Oversubscribed Series C Financing to Advance In Vivo CAR-T Therapies

Source of the image:Umoja Official Website

This funding will be used to advance the development of its in vivo CAR-T cell gene therapy products. In addition, Dr. Campbell Murray, Senior Advisor of Double Point Ventures, has joined the Umoja Board of Directors and expressed his anticipation for the company’s groundbreaking work in the fields of oncology and autoimmune disease treatment.

Umoja Biopharma’s co-founder and CEO, Andrew Scharenberg, M.D., stated that this financing demonstrates investor recognition of Umoja’s potential to develop the industry's first in vivo-generated CAR-T cell therapy, aiming to enhance efficacy, overcome challenges, and expand the accessibility of CAR-T cell therapies. Additionally, Dr. Phil Low of Purdue University has transitioned to serve as a Board Observer and Chair of Umoja’s Scientific Advisory Board. Through this funding round, Umoja highlights the progress and immense potential of its in vivo cell therapy program for cancer, which is expected to bring the benefits of CAR-T cell therapy to more patients while avoiding long waiting times, supply chain limitations, and chemotherapy-related toxicity issues.

Umoja Biopharma, Inc. was founded in 2019, with its headquarters located in Seattle, Washington, USA. After its establishment, the company completed seed round, Series A, and Series B financing in November 2019, November 2020, and June 2021 respectively, raising a total of $263 million. The company's core technology aims to provide new treatment hope for cancer patients by re-"programming" the patient’s own immune system in vivo to more effectively identify and destroy cancer cells.

Umoja Technology Platform (Fig.Source：Umoja Biopharma Official Website）

Umoja’s innovative therapy combines the advantages of gene therapy and cell therapy, particularly its VivoVec platform, which can directly "program" or genetically modify a patient’s T cells in vivo, turning them into effective weapons against tumors. This approach avoids the complex ex vivo cell processing required in traditional CAR-T cell therapy, simplifies the treatment process, and has the potential to reduce treatment costs and improve accessibility.

In addition, Umoja is exploring ways to overcome the challenges faced by existing immunotherapies, such as antigen escape (where cancer cells evade immune system recognition by altering surface antigens) and the immunosuppressive microenvironment (where the tumor's surrounding environment hinders the normal functioning of the immune system), with the aim of achieving more durable and broad-spectrum anti-cancer effects.

Currently, Umoja has multiple products under development, among which UB-TT170 for refractory/recurrent osteosarcoma is in Phase 1 clinical stage.

Umoja Product Pipeline (Source of the image：Umoja Biopharma Official Website）

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