Off-the-shelf cell therapy company Nohla Therapeutics Inc. (Seattle, Wash.) raised $45 million in a series B round led by existing investor Arch Venture Partners. Also participating were new investors Fidelity Management and Celgene Corp. (NASDAQ:CELG) and previous investors 5AM Ventures, Alexandria Venture Investments and AML Biotech Partners.
Nohla’s lead candidate, dilanubicel (NLA101), is in a Phase IIb trial to treat patients with hematologic malignancies undergoing allogeneic transplant and a Phase II trial to treat acute myelogenous leukemia patients with chemotherapy-induced myelosuppression following high-dose chemotherapy. Nohla spokesperson Jim DeNike told BioCentury the company expects top-line data from the trials by the end of this year and in 2H19, respectively.
DeNike said the series B will also fund transfer of manufacturing to WuXi AppTec Co. Ltd. (Shanghai:603259) with which Nohla partnered in March for manufacturing of dilanubicel.
Dilanubicel is an off-the-shelf, allogeneic ex vivo cord blood transplant product that does not require human leukocyte antigen (HLA) matching and is meant to be used as a bridging product to support engraftment.
The company has raised about $100 million to date, including a $43.5 million series A in 2016 led by Arch (see BioCentury Extra, Nov. 29, 2016).