Vita Therapeutics, a Baltimore, MD-based cell engineering company, raised $31M in Series B funding.
The round was led by Cambrian BioPharma, and Solve FSHD, with participation from Riptide Ventures, Cedars Sinai, and TEDCO.
The company, which has raised a total of $66m, intends to use the funds to advance its pre-clinical program VTA-100 for limb-girdle muscular dystrophy to the clinic, develop its newest program, VTA-120 for the treatment of patients with facioscapulohumeral muscular dystrophy, and to further expand its discovery pipeline.
Led by CEO Douglas Falk, Vita Therapeutics is a biotechnology company developing cellular therapeutics for the treatment of debilitating neuromuscular diseases and cancers. The company uses induced stem cell technology to engineer specific cell types designed to replace those that are defective in patients.
Its current pipeline includes lead program, VTA-100 for the treatment of LGMD2A, VTA-120 for the treatment of FSHD, and VTA-300 targeting multiple cancers.
- VTA-100 is currently undergoing investigational IND-enabling studies and is designed to be an autologous treatment that combines gene correction and induced iPSC technology to help repair and replace muscle cells for people with LGMD2A.
- VTA-120 is designed to be an autologous treatment that combines gene correction and iPSC technology to help repair and replace muscle cells for the treatment of FSHD.
- VTA-300 is an immunotherapy currently under development that combines proprietary chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) technology and gene editing to target an undisclosed indication.
Long term, the company is developing its pipeline of cellular therapies following a dual development strategy beginning with autologous-derived cells before moving to a universal hypoimmunogenic cell line.
Vita Therapeutics is currently working with numerous partners, including PanCella, Wyss Institute, and Johns Hopkins University, to advance their clinical programs.
FinSMEs
17/10/2022