Dive Brief:
- U.K.-based Autolus on Wednesday secured £40 million in funding for development of its CAR-T therapies from Woodford Investment Management and Perceptive Bioscience Investments.
- The Series B financing builds on £30 million in seed/Series A money, giving Autolus legs to build outs its T-cell pipeline.
- Formed a little over a year ago, the company was founded on work conducted by Dr. Martin Pule at University College London.
Dive Insight:
The company also introduced its new CEO, Dr. Christian Itin. Itin previously worked on developing blinatumomab at Micromet, which was acquired by Amgen in 2012. Two years after Amgen acquired the drug, the FDA approved blinatumomab for the treatment of a specific type of precursor B-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia.
"A key element of Autolus' strategy is to progress CAR T-cell products quickly into clinical trials, leveraging our strong partnership with UCL," Itin said in a statement on his appointment.
Autolus will be working to catch up to Kite, Juno, and Novartis, who are all moving ahead with their respective CAR-T development.