A2 Biotherapeutics Secures $71.5M Series B Financing to Advance Innovative Tmod™ Cell Therapy Platform Targeting Solid Tumors

A2 Biotherapeutics, a company dedicated to developing innovative cell therapies for cancer patients, recently announced the completion of a $71.5 million Series B financing round. Investors in this round included Column Group, Vida Ventures, and Samsara BioCapital, among others. In November last year, A2 completed a $57 million Series A financing round. According to disclosures from A2, the proceeds from this round will primarily be used to advance the clinical development and internal manufacturing of three pipeline projects.

A2 Biotherapeutics’ independently developed Tmod™ (T-cell module) platform enables the selective killing of tumor cells without harming healthy cells in the body.Tmod-engineered T cells can bind to an activator to kill tumor cells, while simultaneously binding to a blocker to recognize and protect normal cells.The Tmod platform can utilize different combinations of activators and inhibitors to treat various types of tumors. Dr. Scott Foraker, President and Chief Executive Officer of A2 Biotherapeutics, Inc., stated, “We are the first company to produce such engineered T cells that integrate two signals in this manner, leveraging immune cells to attack tumors with specific gene loss while sparing normal cells with intact genomes.”

To distinguish cancer cells from healthy cells, A2 Biotherapeutics is investigating two classes of targets that are either gained or lost in cancer cells. The first class comprises peptide-MHC targets, which are generated intracellularly and presented on the cell surface. The second class consists of targets that are “irreversibly lost” in tumor cells, exerting their mechanism of action by stimulating immune responses through natural killer (NK) cells.The company currently has three drugs under development, with the first one expected to enter clinical trials in 2022.

▲A2 Biotherapeutics’ Investigational Pipeline (Image source: A2 Biotherapeutics official website)

As the leading cause of death from disease, cancer has seen its incidence and mortality rates continue to rise in recent years. Meanwhile, there remain significant unmet therapeutic needs in the field of oncology. Recently, a growing number of innovative companies dedicated to extending immune cell therapies to cancer treatment have emerged, all attracting considerable investor interest.Since the beginning of this year, numerous immune cell therapy companies have secured financing across various rounds.. We also look forward to more patients benefiting from the advancements in immune cell therapy technology.