The knowledge of cancer has greatly improved in the past few years, thanks to technological advancements. Despite that, curing cancer remains one of the greatest challenges of the 21st century. However, new approaches are being taken by various companies across the world to tame the immune system in the fight against cancer.
Raised £52.7M
The UK startup Achilles Therapeutic is a developer of immunotherapies intended to offer patient-specific therapies to treat cancer. Recently, the company secured £52.7 Million in an oversubscribed Series C financing.
Various investors like OrbiMed, Boxer Capital of Tavistock Group, and other prominent US-based, healthcare-focused institutional investors participated along with existing investors — RA Capital, Syncona, Forbion, Invus, Perceptive Advisors, and Redmile Group in the funding round.
How will the funding be used?
The company will use the funding to accelerate the Company’s R&D activities and further build the clinical network to support the ongoing Phase I/IIa trials. The THETIS trial in patients with recurrent or metastatic malignant melanoma and the CHIRON trial in patients with advanced non-small-cell lung cancer.
Both clinical trials use the Company’s innovative personalised T cell therapy approach targeting clonal neoantigens and are currently enrolling patients with interim data expected from both studies in the first half of 2021.
Part of the funding will be used to build manufacturing capabilities and broaden its growing pipeline of solid tumour pre-clinical product candidates.
“Achilles has made tremendous progress since its founding in 2016, and with this financing round, we are further strengthening our outstanding syndicate with more leading US healthcare investors. I am delighted with this strong support for our innovative platform, team, and ambitious development strategy,” said Dr. Iraj Ali, CEO of Achilles Therapeutics. “As we progress our two lead programmes in non-small cell lung cancer and melanoma through clinical trials, we believe that our personalised T cell therapy approach has the potential to transform how certain cancers are treated, bringing much needed novel cancer therapies to patients.”
Develop personalised T cell-based therapies
Headquartered in Stevenage, Achilles uses DNA sequencing data from each patient, together with the proprietary PELEUS bioinformatics platform, to identify clonal neoantigens specific to that patient, and then develop personalised T cell-based therapies specifically targeting those clonal neoantigens.
Achilles Therapeutics was formed in 2016 by Cancer Research UK (via its wholly-owned subsidiary Cancer Research Technology Limited) alongside Syncona Ltd and with the support of UCL Business and the Francis Crick Institute.