Imperial Innovations Leads £50 Million Series B Funding Round in Cell Medica
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Imperial Innovations has led a £50m series B funding round in Cell Medica alongside co-investors Invesco Asset Management and Woodford Investment Management. Innovations has committed £15m to the round and following this new investment, will hold a 27.9% stake in the issued share capital of the Company.
Cell Medica is a cellular immunotherapy company which develops, manufactures and markets patient-specific products for the treatment of cancer and infectious diseases. The Company was co-founded by Innovations and the Chief Executive Officer Gregg Sando, who, after a career in investment banking based both in London and New York, completed his Immunology MSc degree at the medical school of Imperial College London.
Cell Medica will use the investment capital to progress further the development of cellular immunotherapy products with the potential to transform the treatment of cancer and infectious diseases.
The Company’s lead oncology product, CMD-003, is under investigation in the CITADEL Phase II clinical trial for the treatment of patients with advanced lymphomas associated with the Epstein Barr virus. Comprised of the patient’s own immune cells, CMD-003 offers a targeted approach to cancer treatment with very limited side effects or toxicities.
Innovations first invested in Cell Medica in 2007 in a seed funding round. The Group has led each of Cell Medica’s subsequent funding rounds, including the Company’s Series A investment in 2012, which brought in Invesco and CPRIT (Cancer Prevention Research Institute of Texas) as investors.
As at 31 July 2014, the Group had invested a total of £4.8 million in Cell Medica and held 25.2% of the Company’s issued share capital, with a net investment carrying value of £8.0 million. The current investment will be subject to a modest uplift in value.
Russ Cummings, CEO of Imperial Innovations, said: “We are delighted to support this substantial funding round, which will provide Cell Medica with the funding it needs to advance its clinical programme. The size of the round and our commitment to it, reflects our belief in the company’s management and technology.
“At the time of our recent fundraising, we announced that we had identified a select number of businesses within our maturing portfolio which we are ready to scale with pace and ambition. Cell Medica is our first major investment post-fundraising and the first of a number of announcements over the coming months as we begin to put our capital to work.”
