On February 26, 2019 Gracell Biotechnologies, Co., Ltd. ("Gracell") reported the completion of its $85 million series B funding today (Press release, Gracell Biotechnologies, FEB 26, 2019, View Source [SID1234539454]). The financing was led by Temasek with Lilly Asia Ventures, Kington Capital, King Star Capital and Chengdu Miaoji also participated in the round. This new funding will enable Gracell to enter clinical trials with several of its next generation immune cell gene therapy candidates.

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Founded by Dr. Wei (William) Cao in 2017, Gracell is an innovative biomedical company focusing on the development of next generation immune cell gene therapies. Dr. Cao was previously co-founder and CEO of a Nasdaq-listed cell therapy company. Gracell was initially supported by series A financing from 6 Dimensions shortly after its establishment.

Gracell says it is committed to developing high-quality, low-cost cellular gene therapies and solving many of the technical difficulties in the cellular gene therapy field, including complex manufacture, lack of off-the-shelf products, and short duration efficacy. To implement its vision, Gracell believes it has gathered one of the top teams in the industry from China and the U.S.

To date, Gracell has completed pre-clinical development of a series of low-cost CAR-T products and entered clinical research through Institutional Review Board (IRB) studies. Other products under development include CAR-T cell products developed on the company’s FasT(TM) CAR technology, Dual-CAR technology, Off-the-shelf CAR-T products, and CAR-T products for the treatment of refractory solid tumors.