[Funding alert] UK-based Biotechnology Company T Therapeutics Secures $48M in Series A Round Funding

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The proceeds will be used to discover and develop novel T cell receptor (TCR) therapeutics for cancer indications as well as inflammatory disorders. Concurrent with the financing, Graziano Seghezzi (Sofinnova Partners), Nihal Sinha (F-Prime), Samuel Bjork (Digitalis) and Robert Tansley (CIC) have joined the Company’s Board of Directors.

T-Therapeutics, which was spun out of the University of Cambridge, has developed a proprietary transgenic mouse platform, OpTiMus®, which creates an almost unlimited repertoire of ‘optimal’ TCRs as building blocks for pioneering therapies.

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Initially, these treatments are being designed to recognise specific cancers and recruit the patient’s own T cells to eradicate the tumour. T-Therapeutics is building a portfolio of transformational TCR-based medicines for cancer, addressing the limitations of current TCR therapies which only apply to certain cancers and lack specificity, leading to significant side effects.

Professor Allan Bradley, CEO of T-Therapeutics, commented: “We’re delighted to have raised this Series A with such high-quality investors whose amazing networks and shared vision will help us deliver highly differentiated TCR cancer therapies. TCR therapeutics are very much at the dawn of their potential. We intend to replicate the success of therapeutic antibodies but build on this in a new dimension, by using the targeting domains of TCR receptors to take advantage of their much greater specificity for cancer cells compared to normal cells. The same logic can be used to target immunosuppressive biologics to tissues impacted by autoimmune disorders. “By engineering a mouse that makes human TCRs, we are able to discover anti-cancer TCRs that are quantitatively and qualitatively better than those that can currently be isolated from humans or using display technologies. Our OpTiMus® platform provides an unbeatable starting point, a vast repertoire of unique, fully human TCRs, with the properties to make them ideal to develop into drugs. “We can also use the OpTiMus® mouse with our decades of mouse genome engineering experience to better understand immune responses to TCR-based therapies, and interpret responses to other immunotherapy interventions such as T-cell engagers, checkpoint inhibitors or future therapies.”

Graziano Seghezzi, Managing Partner at Sofinnova Partners, said: “Our investment in T-Therapeutics is a reflection of our conviction in both the exceptional team and the transformative technology they’ve brought forward. T-Therapeutics represents the kind of groundbreaking venture Sofinnova is deeply committed to, which has the potential to redefine healthcare. We are proud to be alongside Allan and the team as they pioneer a new era in cancer treatment.”

About T-Therapeutics

T-Therapeutics is a next-generation T cell receptor (TCR) company spun off from the University of Cambridge. The company was created to harness the power of T cell biology, evolved over millions of years, to create safe and effective treatments for many cancers and autoimmune diseases.

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