ArsenalBio Secures $85 Million Series A Financing to Advance a New Paradigm in Programmable Immune Cell Therapies

VCBeat (WeChat ID: vcbeat) learned that on October 17, 2019, ArsenalBio secured $85 million in Series A financing. Investors in this round included Westlake BioPartners, the Parker Institute for Cancer Immunotherapy (PICI), Kleiner Perkins, the University of California, UCSF Foundation Investment Company, Euclidean Capital, and Osage University Partners.

ArsenalBio, founded in 2019, is a programmable cell therapy company. Leveraging programmable and computation-driven approaches, the company is dedicated to advancing key success metrics for immune cell therapies, including enhancing and broadening efficacy, improving patient safety, reducing costs for healthcare providers, and expanding market access.

This round of financing will be used to create efficient and accessible immune cell therapies. Under the leadership of Dr. Ken Drazan, CEO of ArsenalBio, the company will integrate technologies such as CRISPR-based genome engineering, scalable and high-throughput target identification, synthetic biology, and machine learning to drive a new paradigm in the discovery and development of immune cell therapies, initially focusing on cancer treatment.

Ken Drazan stated, “The integrated technical approach we are adopting will create a new arsenal of tools and therapeutics for researchers, patients, and physicians, with the aim of reducing cancer incidence and mortality.”

Currently, the first generation of commercially available T-cell therapies in the industry involves inserting transgenes encoding either chimeric antigen receptors (CARs) or novel T-cell receptors (TCRs) into T cells using viral vectors. ArsenalBio aims to advance this process exponentially by precisely inserting larger DNA payloads without viral vectors, employing specialized tools to design and encode a broader suite of biological “software” instructions that enable immune cells to effectively target and eliminate both solid tumors and hematologic malignancies.

Brook Byers, Founding Partner at Kleiner Perkins, stated, “ArsenalBio is adopting distinct approaches to gene editing, target selection, cell circuit engineering, and computation to rethink the dosing, delivery, durability, and affordability of cell therapies. The pharmaceutical, technology, and talent networks of PICI, Westlake BioPartners, and Kleiner Perkins serve as catalysts for ArsenalBio’s R&D progress.”

Sean Parker, Founder and Chairman of PICI, stated: “ArsenalBio enables us to rewrite extensive genetic code, endowing T cells with dramatic new functionalities—meaning they can more effectively kill cancer cells and combat a wide range of other diseases. If we collaborate and prioritize patients, we can accelerate and enhance the translation from experimental research to clinical therapies.”

Westlake BioPartners, founded in California, USA in 2018, is a venture capital firm dedicated to incubating and supporting life sciences companies.

PICI was established in 2016. The institute brings together leading scientists, clinicians, and industry partners to generate smarter, more coordinated research outcomes in cancer immunotherapy.

Kleiner Perkins, founded in 1976, is a venture capital firm based in Silicon Valley, USA. It was an early investor in many prominent companies, including Amazon, Google, Intuit, Macromedia, Netscape, and Segway.

USCF was established in 2015 to provide professional management services for the financial assets of the UCSF Foundation, overseeing an endowment exceeding $1.5 billion. These funds support the University of California, San Francisco’s investments in education, scientific research, patient care, and public health.

Osage is a venture capital firm founded in 2009 that partners with research universities to invest in innovative startups across sectors such as software, hardware, and life sciences. To date, it has established partnerships with more than 80 universities.

(Compiled by Jiang Ying)