CELL AND GENE THERAPY
Shoreline Biosciences | November 02, 2021
Shoreline Biosciences, Inc. (Shoreline), a biotechnology company developing intelligently designed allogeneic off-the-shelf, standardized, and targeted induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSC) derived natural killer (NK) and macrophage cellular immunotherapies, today announced the completion of a $140M financing, led by Ally Bridge Group, with participation from new investors Eventide Asset Management, BeiGene, Irving Investors, Kingdon, NS Investment, Piper Heartland Healthcare Capital, and Superstring. Existing investors Boxer Capital, BVF Partners, L.P., Commodore Capital, Cormorant Asset Management, Janus Henderson Investors, Kite, a Gilead Company, Stork Capital, Wedbush Healthcare Partners and an undisclosed leading global investment firm, also participated. In connection with the financing, Frank Yu, Founder, CEO and CIO of Ally Bridge Group, joined the Shoreline Board of Directors.
"We are proud of Shoreline's tremendous progress over the past year, including next generation, more persistent and more effective iPSC-derived NK cells, enhancing our core technologies, advancing our preclinical programs, establishing transformative and validating partnerships with Kite and BeiGene, creating smart manufacturing methods, and attracting exceptional talent to support our next phase of development and growthWith this financing and our corporate partnerships, Shoreline has now more than $300 million to continue building our pipeline of safe, effective and affordable cellular immunotherapies for both solid tumors and hematologic malignancies."
Kleanthis G. Xanthopoulos, Ph.D., Shoreline's co-founder, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer
"Having invested in – and followed closely for several years -- the iPSC-derived NK cells-based therapeutics field which has made highly encouraging progress in the clinic, we are convinced of the true differentiation demonstrated by the Shoreline technology platform. Ally Bridge Group, a leading investor in best-in-class cell therapy companies from oncology to autoimmune diseases, expects Shoreline to be a new category leader," said Frank Yu, Founder, CEO and CIO of Ally Bridge Group.
The proceeds from the financing will allow Shoreline to continue the advancement of its proprietary iPSC platform focused on developing next generation natural killer (NK) cell and macrophage-cell therapies, create potent and persistent NK cell-specific Chimeric Antigen Receptors (CARs) as well as switchable CAR-NK cell engagers and macrophage-specific CARs to treat blood cancers, solid tumors, and other health conditions. With the close of this financing, Shoreline is well-capitalized with greater than $300 million, including committed partnership R&D funding, to execute on its goals and advance its pipeline.
About Shoreline Biosciences
Shoreline is dedicated to creating next-generation cellular immunotherapies for cancer that overcome the current limitations of first-generation cell therapy products. Shoreline is building a pipeline of natural killer cell and macrophage-cell therapy candidates derived from its deep expertise in iPSC differentiation methods and genetic reprogramming of disease relevant pathways. Shoreline has strategic partnerships with Kite, a Gilead Company, and BeiGene, a global biotechnology company, Contract Development and Manufacturing Organization partnerships with well-established organizations, and is supported by high-quality investors. Shoreline Biosciences is headquartered in San Diego, CA.
Read More
Recombia Biosciences | November 02, 2020
Recombia Biosciences announces the launch of operations in Brisbane, California. The company aims to harness its proprietary genome editing technologies to accelerate the development of yeast for sustainable production of fermented ingredients. For the next few years Recombia and Lesaffre will be joining forces in the area of yeast strain development. With its partnership with Recombia, Lesaffre is investing in major pioneering technology. The ability to generate thousands of yeast strains in parallel, combined with laboratory automation, is expected to exponentially accelerate development of projects in the areas of health, the environment, and energy. The partnership also signifies Lesaffre's entry into the world of Synthetic Biology, considered to be the major biotechnological opportunity of this decade. Recombia Biosciences was founded by three Stanford University researchers in 2019 as a spin-off from the prestigious Stanford Genome Technology Center (SGTC). Recombia's technologies are based upon techniques that increase the efficiency of genome editing and enable engineering of yeast at very high throughput. The strategic collaboration with Lesaffre aims to advance Recombia's proprietary gene editing technologies to identify new yeast strains, discover novel yeast physiology of industrial relevance and optimize the production of biosourced ingredients and biofuels.
Read More
CELL AND GENE THERAPY
PacBio | July 26, 2021
Pacific Biosciences has had no trouble growing its business on its own in the year and a half since its acquisition by Illumina was blocked by the Federal Trade Commission due to concerns that the combination would establish a monopoly in DNA sequencing.
Earlier this year, the sequencer manufacturer received a staggering $900 million investment from SoftBank—a commitment almost as large as the $1.2 billion promised by Illumina for the planned acquisition.
PacBio is now making its acquisition, setting out a deal for up to $800 million to acquire Omniome, another provider of DNA sequencing technology.
The majority of the transaction is comprised of planned upfront payments totaling about $600 million. This will be paid out in $300 million in cash and 9.4 million shares of PacBio common stock. The additional $200 million will come from milestone payments made when Omniome meets certain specified objectives, which will also be paid in a mix of cash and shares.
PacBio has committed a small number of its current investors to a private issue of common stock to fund the acquisition. The total gross proceeds from this deal are expected to be about $300 million. Casdin Capital, SoftBank subsidiary SB Northstar LP, and T. Rowe Price Associates are among the investors who will buy approximately 11.2 million shares of PacBio stock for $26.75 per share, which is slightly less than the stock's closing price on the last full day of trading before the buyout was announced.
PacBio will be able to extend the capabilities of its single-molecule, real-time sequencing technology, or SMRT Sequencing, for use by its clients in biomedical and infectious disease research, as well as therapeutic and diagnostic development, after the transaction is completed.
PacBio's technology is based on long-read sequencing, which analyzes long strands of DNA at a time and can detect larger genomic variants and structural changes than short-read methods—though long-read sequencing has a higher potential error rate in those readings.
Meanwhile, Omniome has created its short-read technology that concentrates on the proteins that bind to DNA to generate what it claims are more accurate analyses than existing short-read sequencers.
Combining the two technologies is reminiscent of Illumina's planned acquisition of PacBio, which would have merged the latter's long-read technology with Illumina's short-read sequencing.
The merger is a significant boost for Omniome, which has attracted several life sciences, investors since its inception in 2013. Each of its most two funding rounds—a series B in mid-2018 and a series C in early 2020—raised $60 million, bringing the San Diego-based startup's total funding to over $130 million.
Read More