October 28, 2020 -- Gracell Biotechnologies has secured $100 million in series C funding to expand its chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell therapies.
The company was founded in 2017 to develop autologous and allogenic CAR T-cell therapy approaches. Since then, the company has developed two platforms -- FasTCAR and TruUCAR.
With the FasTCAR platform, Gracell is able to deliver younger, less exhausted T cells for autologous cell therapies that can be manufacturered within 22-36 hours. The company's lead FasTCAR candidate is GC012F, which is being evaluated in a phase I clinical trial in China for the treatment of relapsed or refractory multiple myeloma.
The TruUCAR T cells can be derived from nonhuman leukocyte antigen-matched healthy donors to generate allogenic CAR T-cell therapies that are available off-the-shelf at a lower cost for a broad patient base. The company's lead TruUCAR candidate, GC027, is being studied in a phase I clinical trial in China for the treatment of relapsed or refractory T-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia.