Arsenal Biosciences Announced Another $70 million Collaboration, This Time With Genentech

Arsenal Biosciences announced a multi-year deal with Genentech. The $70 million collaboration will involve the development of targeted T cells for solid tumors. This deal follows the recent closing of a funding round for Arsenal Biosciences worth $220 million. 

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Scoring Another $70 Million Deal

In January 2021, Arsenal Biosciences announced a multi-year discovery collaboration with Bristol Myers Squibb for the advancement of next-generation T cell therapies for the treatment of solid tumors. In exchange for Arsenal Biosciences for discovering and building preclinical candidates against multiple targets, Bristol Myers Squibb paid $70 million to the private company.

The announced deal today with Genentech follows in the footsteps of last year’s. Along with research, development, and commercial milestones, Genentech will pay $70 million to ArsenalBio. Together, the companies plan on deploying ArsenalBio’s technology to identify critical success circuits in T cell-based therapies. 

ArsenalBio’s engineering platform boasts CRISPR-based gene editing, synthetic biology, and computational biology. The companies’ aim for these technologies is the creation of new synthetic biological programs aimed at enhancing T cell functions in order to overcome immunological defense systems present in and around solid tumors. 

On the $70 million collaboration, Ken Drazan, MD, Chief Executive Officer of Arsenal Biosciences, said, “This collaboration is a testament to the strength of our platforms and their utility in identifying the attributes of T cells that offer the most promise in addressing unmet medical needs across cancer.”

The collaboration’s announcement comes weeks after the closing of ArsenalBio’s Series B funding round, wherein the company raised $220 million. New backers included Bristol-Myers Squibb, Byers Capital, Emerson Collective Investments, and others; they joined existing investors, the Parker Institute for Cancer Immunotherapy (PICI), Westlake Village BioPartners, the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) Foundation Investment Company, and more in supporting the oversubscribed funding round.

In total, the startup raised over $305.8 million since its inception in 2019. With its significant funding, brought in by its promising platform, along with its partnerships with big players in the industry, Arsenal Biosciences is a company to keep an eye on.

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Max Heirich