A pair of Bay Area biotech upstarts with deep pockets and a shared interest in curative cancer drugs join R&D forces
Two Bay Area upstarts with close connections are joining forces today in the hunt for cell therapy 2.0. And the deal is bonding some brash new players with one of the best connected biotech execs in San Francisco.
There’s no money mentioned in the deal announcement, but both Orca Bio and Lyell Immunopharma have had no trouble raising hundreds of millions of dollars in the past year or so.
This is a match made in biotech heaven with plans to take on some devilish killers. Orca brings its T cell purification platform to the table, while Lyell has deep ranks of experts in T cell biology. Together, they think they can make curative strides in solid tumors, ranging beyond the first victories over blood cancer.
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