Myeloid Therapeutics, a Cambridge, CA-based clinical stage mRNA-immunotherapy company, raised $73M in funding.
The round was led by Hatteras Investment Partners, with participation from new investors ARCH Venture Partners and Moore Strategic Ventures. All existing investors, including Newpath Partners, 8VC and Alexandria Venture Investments, also participated.
The company intends to use the funds for the continued clinical development of MT-101, its lead cell therapy program in Phase 1/2 for T cell lymphoma, and accelerate the development of MT-302, a first-in-class TROP2-FcA mRNA-LNP product, into a Phase 1/2 study for TROP2-expressing tumors. Additional in vivo programming candidates are also advancing to the clinic.
Led by CEO Daniel Getts, Myeloid Therapeutics is a clinical stage mRNA-immunotherapy company developing novel therapies for cancer. Integrating the fields of RNA, immunology and medicine, the company’s proprietary platform provides clinical solutions by matching therapeutic modalities to disease conditions, including use of autologous cell therapies, in vivo cell programming using mRNA, and RNA-based gene-editing using RetroT.
MT-101 is the company’s first autologous CAR monocyte. This candidate was derived from the Company’s proprietary ATAK™ platform and designed to harness the ability of myeloid cells to penetrate into tumors and promote broad anti-tumor activity. MT-101 targets CD5, a surface receptor that is present in greater than 75% of peripheral T cell lymphomas. To create MT-101, the patient’s cells are engineered ex vivo with the mRNA-strand coding for the CAR. The engineered cells are delivered back to the patient with a vein-to-vein time of eight days. The ATAK™ CAR is proprietary to Myeloid and manufactured using the Company’s patented processes.
The Company’s lead in vivo program, MT-302, is a TROP2-targeting in vivo CAR designed for expression within the myeloid compartment. TROP2 is a tumor associated antigen expressed widely on epithelial tumors, including some of the most difficult to treat cancers. Treatment with MT-302 has demonstrated monotherapy activity in a TROP2/TNBC model, confirming the potency of programmed myeloid cells in the absence of T cells. Myeloid believes that MT-302 has significant advantages over TROP2-ADC approaches through its ability to engage the full immune response. In 2023, Myeloid expects to initiate a Phase 1/2 clinical study with MT-302 for patients with TROP2-expressing tumors.
FinSMEs
18/05/2023