Adaptimmune raises US$100m

The company said  that it has entered into a definitive agreement with Matrix Capital Management Company, LP, New Enterprise Associates 16, L.P., New Enterprise Associates 14, L.P., and Syncona Portfolio Ltd  to purchase an aggregate of US$100 million of its American Depositary Shares (“ADSs”) in a registered direct offering. The transaction was completed from the company’s shelf registration at a price of $10.00 per ADS. 

Adaptimmune will use the net proceeds to advance the company’s pipeline of SPEAR T-cell candidates targeting MAGE-A4, MAGE-A10, and AFP through clinical Phase I/II testing until late 2020. The company generates T-cell receptors with modified hypervariable binding regions in order to enhance affinity to cancer cell’s HLA peptide complex. SPEAR T-cell candidates thus only works for solid tumours that do not show  antigen shedding. MAGE-A4 targeting SPEAR T cells are currently safety tested in a basket trial against nine different solid tumour entities, while MAGE-A10-tageting T cells are directed against three different tumours.