Century Therapeutics Raises $160M for iPSC-derived CAR-T and CAR-NK Cell Therapeutics

In early March, Century Therapeutics made waves by raising $160 million in Series C financing. This was on top of the existing $250 million that the company raised during a Series A round in 2019, bringing its total financing to an astounding $410 million. The Series C financing round was led by Casdin Capital, a New York-based investment firm that targets life science and healthcare companies.

In total, twelve investors were involved, including several “heavy hitters” within the life science investment sector. These investors were: 

1. Avidity Partners
2. Casdin Capital
3. Fidelity Management and Research Company LLC
4. Federated Hermes Kaufmann Fund
5. Leaps by Bayer
6. Logos Capital
7. Marshall Wace
8. Octagon Capital Partners
9. OrbiMed
10. Qatar Investment Authority
11. RA Capital Management
12. Versant Ventures

Developing iPSC-Derived Cell Therapeutics

Headquartered in Philadelphia, PA, an hub for cell and gene therapy manufacturing innovation, Century Therapeutics has a unique market focus. The company specializes in creating genetically-engineered, universal induced pluripotent stem cell (iPSC) derived immuno-therapeutics to target hematologic and solid tumor cancers.

Specifically, the company is developing iPSC-derived CAR-T and CAR-NK cell therapies, which it calls “CAR-iT” and “CAR-iNK” cell therapies. To create these cell therapeutics, Century Therapeutics utilizes a proprietary “allo-evasion” technology that enables its therapeutic candidates to avoid host rejection and promote cell persistence, allowing for a durable therapeutic response.

The company explains, “Century’s foundational technology is built on induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) that have unlimited self-renewing capacity. This enables multiple rounds of cellular engineering to produce master cell banks of modified cells that can be expanded and differentiated into immune effector cells to supply vast amounts of allogeneic, homogeneous therapeutic products.”

The company’s iPSC-derived CAR-expressing natural killer (NK) and T-cell therapeutics are on track to enter clinical trials for hematological and solid cancers in 2022.

Related: The Pipeline for iPSC-Derived Cell Therapeutics in 2021

To learn more about the burgeoning market for iPSCs, view the “Global Induced Pluripotent Stem Cell (iPS Cell) Industry Report 2021.”