Biotech raises $78M to unleash immune system’s natural killers against cancer

San Diego’s Artiva Biotherapeutics announced Thursday that it has raised $78 million to develop new ways to direct the immune system against cancer.

The Series A financing round was co-led by 5AM Ventures, venBio Partners and RA Capital Management.

Enlisting immune cells in the fight against cancer has become a popular goal in the biopharma world. One strategy involves taking a class of immune cells known as T cells and equipping them to recognize and destroy cancer cells.

But there are drawbacks to these treatments, known as CAR-T cell therapies. They sometimes trigger intense fever and inflammation. And making CAR-T cells takes time. Researchers must collect a patient’s blood, modify their immune cells in the lab and reinfuse those cells.

“What we really want to do is develop an off-the-shelf, safe, effective cell therapy that we can use to treat hundreds to thousands of patients from a single donor,” said Peter Flynn, Artiva’s chief operating officer.

Artiva uses a different group of immune cells, known as natural killer cells. Like T cells, natural killer cells can kill cancerous cells. But unlike T cells, natural killer cells collected from one person and given to another are far less likely to target the recipient’s healthy cells.

Artiva plans to put its approach to the test by the end of the year in an initial clinical trial of patients with B-cell lymphoma. The trial will test a combination of natural killer cells and an antibody — an immune protein that can latch onto the surface of the cancer cells.

The hope is that the natural killer cells will find antibody-coated cancer cells and quickly destroy them. The recent funding round will cover the costs of the trial, says Tom Farrell, Artiva’s CEO. The funds will also support two other efforts to modify natural killer cells so that they specifically target certain breast cancer tumors and B-cell cancers.

Artiva Biotherapeutics is located near University Town Center and has 10 employees. Farrell says the company plans to hire 20 more workers in the next couple of years.

San Diego biotech Fate Therapeutics is also developing natural killer cell cancer therapies.