Why can the biopharmaceutical company raise $300 million in 12 months?

Source: ft Chinanet 2014-08-08 Juno therapeutics has long been one of the most fundraising start-ups in the history of biotechnology development, and the company just announced that it has raised $134 million through a new round of private placement, which means that the company has raised $300 million in less than 12 months How bad is the figure? That's more than some of the company's competitors have raised in their initial public offerings, and is likely to set a pre IPO record for biotech companies Hans bishop, CEO of Juno, said: "we are very honored by the interest of investors in this round of financing, but we are doubly honored by this, which proves that our strategy implementation has been affirmed We believe that the winners in this field are the kind of people who will need to do great scientific research, and there must be sufficient resources to do so " Why does Seattle based Juno need to raise so much money? The company is competing to commercialize one of the most exciting and audacious cancer treatments in a few years: a new technology that allows white blood cells to find and kill tumors by genetically modifying their own white blood cells These cells are called chimeric antigen receptor T cells (CART) This is an area of increasing participation Kit Pharma, based in Santa Monica, Calif., raised $128 million in an IPO in June; it uses cart licensed by the National Cancer Institute Pfizer and cellectis, a French biotech company that developed cart, recently reached a cart therapy co development agreement, paying a total of $110 million in progress payments and investments - plus up to $2.9 billion in future progress payments Novartis, which appears to be ahead of other companies in its push to market, is scrambling to commercialize cart cells for the treatment of adult and childhood acute lymphoblastic leukemia (all) Although Juno is still ahead of most other companies after Novartis, the company is taking a unique approach to developing this new technology Since the company is not formed by a single academic group developing cart - it is formed through the joint efforts of memorial Sloan Kettering in New York, Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle and other organizations, so it can be explored in many ways Cart therapy, and then the integration of these research results in a scientific way, is expected to eventually develop a better therapy The company now focuses on three different cars that are being developed for a protein called CD19, which is found in B cells that often have problems with blood cancer Jcar015: the cart is being developed in adults with acute lymphoblastic leukemia (all), led by Michael sadelain and Renier brentjens of the memorial Sloan Kettering cancer research center in New York, who are co founders of Juno The study, which has been the most advanced of Juno's trials, was suspended for some time earlier this year after some patients died during treatment Jcar014 and jcar017: these two kinds of cart were developed by Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center Most cart is developed by genetic modification of leukocytes from a large number of randomly selected patients These cart targets CD8 cells and CD4 cells, which can reduce the dosage of the drug and possibly reduce the side effects - which can include dangerous high fever and terrible immune reactions, which can lead to death Two of Juno's other co founders, Stan Riddell of the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center and Michael Jensen of Seattle Children's Hospital, have been pioneers in the treatment At present, intellectual property is the controversial issue in this field Juno and Novartis are involved in a lawsuit for patent ownership, which may result in the payment of royalties in some way I asked bishop if legal disputes would lead to the fact that cart could not be put into use in a timely manner or could not get the best quality cart? "I don't think that will happen," Bishop said This is my personal view, but I am not worried about this situation " "Our view on this is that the needs of those patients have not been met, and these problems need to be solved urgently If the second round of consolidation fails in patients with acute lymphoblastic leukemia, then the development of the disease is very terrible, "Bishop said," if the competition can really improve the probability of these patients getting better treatment standards, then this is a good thing " As for who is involved in the new round of financing with a total amount of US $134 million, bishop can't disclose Several major investors have been involved, including about ten public funds and health-care focused funds, but none of them want to disclose their names Bishop just said that they have a "remarkable history of building businesses," including comprehensive funds and specialized funds, which are headquartered in New York, Boston and San Francisco He declined to share his thoughts on the company's IPO.