Biotech LIfT BioSciences today announced its largest financing round to date with a further £5m investment into the company in its mission to develop the first curative and affordable cell therapy for all solid tumours.
The round was led by new investor Starbloom Capital with additional participation by Jonathan Milner, a leading biotech ‘super-angel’ investor and earlier stage investor in LIfT, Kizoo Technology Ventures, a leading early-stage investor in breakthrough rejuvenation technologies and Downing Ventures, a leading London-based investor.
“I’m very pleased to support LifT’s unique and truly revolutionary approach to defeating most forms of cancer,” said James Fickel of Starbloom Capital.
“We are very proud to continue to support LIfT’s game-changing platform that breaks with the old-fashioned single-target approach and welcome Starbloom as a new investor”, said Patrick Burgermeister, Partner of Kizoo.
“We are excited by the potential impact that a neutrophil-based cell therapy could have for those suffering with cancer and look forward to the business moving its therapy closer to the clinic,” said Mathew Pierce of Downing Ventures.
The company’s first product, N-LIfT (Neutrophil Only Leukocyte Infusion Therapy), works by effectively transferring the innate immunity that some exceptional people naturally have in their body from their stem cells to cancer patients.
The treatment is expected to give cancer patients up to 20 times the cancer killing ability they had been exhibiting themselves.
“Some of us have superior inherited attributes in our immune system which give protection from cancer,” said Dr Oxana Polyakova, CSO for LIfT BioSciences.
“LIfT Biosciences is set to understand and utilise these properties for the development of novel approaches to treat cancer.
“LIfT has developed a cell therapy product which aims to deliver to patients the innate anticancer immunity of people with exceptional immunity.”
Alex Blyth, CEO of LIfT commented, “We now have the funds to develop the murine in-vivo and organoid efficacy data needed to progress this much needed therapy to clinic. N-LIfT has the potential to be a paradigm-shifting change in how we treat cancer.”
The investment will also enable LIfT BioSciences to further develop its manufacturing technology to cost-effectively produce N-LIfT, and fund pre-clinical in-vivo work.
LIfT BioSciences is looking to demonstrate in-vivo superiority over standard of care in Pancreatic Ductal Adenocarcinoma (PDAC), Hepatocellular Carcinoma (HCC) and other solid tumour types under investigation.
LIfT is currently in discussions with major pharmaceutical companies to accelerate getting to clinic sooner.