Immusoft Secures $20 Million Series B Financing to Advance Novel B-Cell Platform

Recently, VCBeat (WeChat Official Account: vcbeat) learned from foreign media that on January 3 (U.S. local time), cell therapy company Immusoft announced the completion of a $20 million Series B financing round. The round was jointly participated in by Breakout Ventures, Alexandria Venture Investments, RBV Capital, DEFTA Partners, and Mesa Verde Venture Partners.

Immusoft is a biotechnology company focused on the field of cell therapy. Founded in 2009, it is headquartered in Seattle, Washington. Currently, Immusoft is developing a method called Immune System Programming (ISP), which uses patients’ own cells to continuously deliver proteins.

Immusoft plans to use the proceeds from this financing round to advance ISP-001 through Phase I/II clinical trials. ISP-001 leverages Immusoft’s “Sleeping Beauty” transposon-engineered autologous B cells (a type of immune cell) to express and deliver α-L-iduronidase (IDUA) for the treatment of Mucopolysaccharidosis Type I (MPS I). Additionally, the funds will be used to apply Immusoft’s proprietary Immune System Programming (ISP) platform for B cell modification, supporting the development of additional pipeline candidates.

“Throughout 2018, the Immusoft team made significant progress on our ISP platform, as highlighted by our lead candidate, ISP-001,” said Sean Ainsworth, CEO of Immusoft. “I believe we are well-positioned to advance a novel therapeutic approach for patients with MPS I through Phase I/II clinical development, and we are committed to generating initial safety and potential efficacy data in 2019.”

Immusoft aims to reprogram patients’ B cells using ISP technology to produce therapeutic proteins ex vivo, thereby extending the duration of sustained protein delivery in patients.

The application of Immusoft’s ISP platform is also being further advanced. On September 5, 2018, the company announced a $3.5 million financing round to explore methods for the sustained delivery of proteins across the blood-brain barrier.

Immusoft’s proprietary ISP platform technology is a hybrid cell/gene therapy approach that employs clinically validated non-viral vectors to safely and reliably insert functional genes into immune cells. Once infused back into the patient, a subset of ISP-modified cells engrafts within the patient’s physiological niche, continuously secreting gene-encoded proteins. This platform is broadly applicable to the production of nearly any biopharmaceutical entity (such as antibodies, proteins, or enzymes), with the potential to transform the standard of care for many conditions currently requiring recombinant enzyme replacement therapy, as well as to address rare orphan diseases.

MPS I (Mucopolysaccharidosis Type I) is a rare, fatal pediatric genetic disorder that impairs the body’s ability to produce IDUA (alpha-L-iduronidase), an essential enzyme responsible for breaking down long-chain sugars within cells. When these sugar chains cannot be degraded and processed, they accumulate in cells, causing progressive damage. This accumulation can occur in brain tissue; in severe cases, affected children rarely survive beyond ten years of age.

Breakout Ventures is an early-stage fund that supports high-performing scientists and entrepreneurs working at the intersection of technology, biology, materials, and energy.

RBV Capital is a life sciences venture capital fund headquartered in Moscow, Russia, with a partner office in Switzerland. RBV Capital invests in a diversified portfolio of assets, including pharmaceuticals, biologics, digital health products, and medical devices, to address unmet medical and market needs with global commercialization potential.

DEFTA Partners is a venture capital firm focused on high-tech industries, primarily making early-stage investments in information technology companies with opportunities for accelerated global growth.

Mesa Verde Venture Partners is a life sciences venture capital fund established in 2006, with key investment areas including drug discovery, tools, medical devices, diagnostics, and health information technology.