BrainChild Bio has closed a $116M Series A, one of the larger cell therapy rounds this year, to run a pivotal study of its CAR T treatment in a devastating childhood brain cancer.
The money arrived with support from Seattle Children’s and WRF Capital, the investment arm of the Washington Research Foundation, while a private family fund and foundation led the round on terms the company declined to detail.
The funds pay for the ILLUMINATE Phase 2 study of BCB-276 in diffuse intrinsic pontine glioma, a brainstem tumor with few treatment options, and continued development of BCB-214 for glioblastoma.
The Seattle company engineers CAR T cells with multiplex targeting and delivers them directly into the cerebrospinal fluid through an implanted reservoir-catheter, an approach designed to allow repeated infusions that maximize effect at the tumor while limiting toxicity elsewhere in the body.
Chief executive Steven Brugger leads the clinical-stage company, which grew out of Seattle Children’s research into a standalone business. The raise underscores a busy stretch for pediatric oncology and for locoregional delivery strategies that aim to get cell therapies to tumors the immune system normally struggles to reach.
