Bay­er, Ver­sant back a $250M cell ther­a­py start­up on a quest to cre­ate off-the-shelf im­muno-on­col­o­gy ther­a­pies

Look out Fate Ther­a­peu­tics — Ver­sant Ven­tures’ Cen­tu­ry Ther­a­peu­tics is lurk­ing in the bur­geon­ing field of off-the-shelf cell ther­a­peu­tics that of­fer the promise of quick­er, cheap­er and po­tent can­cer treat­ments. The Philadel­phia-based biotech un­veiled on Mon­day a meaty $250 mil­lion round of fi­nanc­ing — led by Bay­er’s ven­ture arm — af­ter Ver­sant spawned it in 2018 to de­vel­op in­duced pluripo­tent stem cells (iP­SC)-de­rived prod­ucts to fight can­cer.

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