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One cell therapy to treat them all–or at least over 120 different diseases. Garuda Therapeutics closed a $62 million Series B round Tuesday to support its off-the-shelf, self-renewing blood stem cell technology.
The Cambridge-based company is tackling the challenges of traditional stem cell therapy.
Using a patient's own depleted cells or seeking out a biological donor match is both costly and time prohibitive. Garuda’s proprietary hematopoietic stem cells could be the industry’s first off-the-shelf offering, leading to faster, more effective treatments and greater patient accessibility.
The biotech launched 15 months ago with $72 million in hand and the potential to use its cellular therapy to address and potentially cure over 70 diseases. The team has since identified 50 more targets ripe for stem cell treatment.
The Series B funds will go into the company’s two priority programs for hematology and oncology indications, Dhvanit Shah, Ph.D., co-founder and CEO of Garuda, said in a prepared statement.
The company will also leverage the cash infusion for development of its HLA-matched pluripotent stem cells – cells that are able to self-renew and develop into one of the three primary cell groups that make up the human body.
This advancement would greatly broaden patient eligibility and access to cell therapies, according to the press release.
The advance could be particularly important for patients who are in a racial minority group. According to a 2019 Harvard study, white Americans have a 77% chance of finding a donor on the National Marrow Donor Program’s “Be the Match” registry, while a Black patient’s likelihood falls around 23%.
Garuda’s latest raise was bolstered by Northpond Ventures, OrbiMed, Cormorant and Aisling Capital, along with "other elite investors and individuals.”
In the current market, investors are more hesitant to pull out their checkbooks. A CBRE survey found close to 60% of investors plan to buy less in 2023 in the face of rising rates and potential recession. Yet some biopharma companies are still finding funds for their projects.
Structure Therapeutics went public with an IPO over $161 million on Feb. 3, while new VC Patient Square Capital closed out its inaugural life sciences fund at $3.9 billion.