Umoja Biopharma Secures $100 Million Series C Financing to Advance In Vivo Cell Therapy Pipeline

On January 14, 2025, Umoja Biopharma, a clinical-stage biotechnology company, successfully completed a $100 million Series C financing round, causing a significant stir in the biotechnology field. This financing round not only represents high recognition from the capital market for Umoja Biopharma but will also inject strong momentum into its journey of developing cell and gene therapies.

This financing was co-led by Double Point Ventures and DCVC Bio, with participation from both new and existing investors, including ARK Invest, Cormorant Asset Management, MPM Capital, Qiming Venture Partners USA, RTW Investments, Alexandria Venture Investments, SoftBank Vision Fund 2, CaaS Capital, Emerson Collective Investments managed by Yosemite, K2 HealthVentures, Myeloma Investment Fund, and the University of Minnesota Endowment.

The $100 million financing obtained this time will be used by Umoja Biopharma for multiple key aspects, fully pushing the company to a new level.

In clinical trials, the company will accelerate the trial process of existing drugs. It will provide sufficient funding for the Phase I clinical trial of UB-TT170 and recruit more patients to participate. At the same time, it will promote the CD22 UB-VV400 project, which is leading in multiple oncology and autoimmune clinical studies.

Screenshot fromUmoja Biopharma Official Website

In terms of R&D and innovation investment, the company will increase research on the four major technology platforms. Optimize the VivoVec lentiviral vector technology to enhance safety and efficacy; explore the potential of the RACR/CAR, iCIL, and TumorTag platforms, develop more innovative therapies, investigate new targets and application areas, and expand the product lines for cancer and autoimmune disease treatments.

Since its establishment in 2020, Umoja Biopharma has demonstrated strong development potential, with a total of $263 million in financing completed to date. Umoja Biopharma focuses on developing "off-the-shelf" therapies, aiming to expand the role of CAR-T cell therapy in the treatment of cancer and autoimmune diseases, enhancing its scope of application, efficacy, and accessibility.

The company owns four core technology platforms, which have laid a solid foundation for its exploration in the field of cell and gene therapies. VivoVec employs proprietary third-generation lentiviral vector technology, enabling the human body to produce anti-cancer CAR-T cells on its own; RACR/CAR can program cells within the body and, through the mechanism of rapamycin, promote the long-term survival and expansion of CAR-T cells generated in vivo; iCIL uses RACR technology to mass-produce synthetic anti-cancer cells from induced pluripotent stem cells, enhancing endogenous anti-tumor immune function; TumorTag improves targeting flexibility by combining universal CAR with ex vivo manufactured cells. These four platforms complement each other effectively, overcoming many limitations of the current generation of ex vivo cellular immunotherapies.

In drug development, Umoja Biopharma has achieved significant results. UB-TT170, which is currently in Phase I clinical trials, is being tested in patients with refractory/recurrent osteosarcoma. Osteosarcoma is a common bone tumor in children, and the development of UB-TT170 brings new hope to these patients. Meanwhile, UB-VV200 and UB-VV111, which are in the IND data generation phase, have also attracted considerable attention. UB-VV111 will be used for the treatment development of hematologic malignancies, while UB-VV200, in combination with UB-TT170, is expected to become an effective treatment option for folate receptor-expressing solid tumors, applicable to various conditions such as ovarian cancer, cervical cancer, endometrial cancer, triple-negative breast cancer, and non-small cell lung cancer.

Umoja Biopharma also actively engages in collaborations to expand its development footprint. In 2024, the company has been highly active in partnerships. On January 3,Deepen Strategic Cooperation with Umoja Biopharma, IASO Biotherapeutics has obtained the exclusive rights to use Umoja's RACR platform for the development of two ex vivo iPSC-derived CAR cell therapies; Umoja, on the other hand, is using IASO Biotherapeutics' clinically validated CAR sequences in combination with its self-developed VivoVec to advance the research and development of in vivo CAR-T candidate products. On January 4,Enters into Two Exclusive Option and License Agreements with AbbVie, developing multiple CAR-T cell therapy candidates for various in situ cancers using Umoja's proprietary VivoVec platform. On September 13,Collaboration with Nonna Biopharma on Multi-Target Antibody Development, leveraging Nanobio's proprietary fully human heavy-chain antibody (HCAb) platform technology to produce novel in vivo CAR-T cell therapies, further expanding the potential applications of innovative delivery technologies.

Umoja Biopharma, with this financing, is expected to achieve significant breakthroughs in the cell and gene therapy field. The company is committed to the goal of improving the accessibility and effectiveness of CAR-T cell therapy, which may bring more treatment options and better therapeutic outcomes for patients with cancer and autoimmune diseases.