ElevateBio and Affini-T partner on KRAS therapies; Casma raises $46M to drug the cell’s garbage disposal system
15 Nov 2022
Executive ChangeCell TherapyGene Therapy
Affini-T is the latest to sign on with ElevateBio, former Alexion head David Hallal’s one-stop-shop for cell and gene therapy manufacturing. Affini-T will use ElevateBio’s lentiviral vector system to engineer cell therapies targeted at KRAS.
Affini-T and ElevateBio declined to disclose any financial details of the deal. Affini-T launched out of Phil Greenberg’s work at Fred Hutch, and the biotech is tackling two KRAS driver mutations — G12V and G12D — with both programs still in preclinical stages. In July, Amgen vet Dirk Nagorsen joined as the biotech’s CMO.
In August, ElevateBio
partnered with the University of Pittsburgh
to build a new manufacturing site. The deal, which stems from an $100 million grant from the Richard King Mellon Foundation, will have ElevateBio manufacture cell and gene therapies for the university for 30 years. ElevateBio is also partnering with George Daley’s Boston Children’s Hospital lab to launch a new company, although they are keeping most details, including the name of said company,
under wraps for now
. Daley is the dean of Harvard Medical School, but Harvard is not involved in the collaboration.
Tuesday morning, Casma announced a $46 million venture round to push its lead candidate, a small molecule that engages the cell’s garbage disposal system, through preclinical and IND-enabling studies. The candidate is targeted at MYD88 mutant tumor cells, which are found in a range of lymphomas.
Casma was built around autophagy — the cell’s natural garbage disposal system. By creating small molecules that can regulate the autophagy system, the biotech can reprogram what proteins get disposed of inside cells. It’s essentially a different version of targeted protein degradation.
Casma launched out of Third Rock in 2018 with a $58.5 million Series A, and in 2020, the biotech lined up another $50 million round of funding.
The latest round included a number of new investors, including the venture arms of Amgen, Astellas and Eisai, along with Euclidean Capital, Mirae Asset and Ono Venture Investment. Eventide Asset Management, Schroders Capital, The Column Group, Third Rock Ventures and other returning investors also joined in. And Astellas Ventures’ Hiromichi Kimura joined the board of directors.
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