
Monday, March 16, 2009
NKT Therapeutics lands $8M in Series A fund
By Mass High Tech staff
NKT Therapeutics Inc., a Newton-based biotechnology firm, secured $8 million in a first funding round co-led by SV Life Sciences (SVLS) and MedImmune Ventures. The Series A financing terms included the addition of SVLS Managing Partner Michael Ross and Joseph Amprey, senior managing director of MedImmune, to the NKT board of directors.
NKT develops treatments that activate or deactivate the Natural Killer T (NKT) cells to treat cancer, infectious diseases, autoimmune diseases, asthma and dermatitis, company officials said. Further development may lead to new vaccines.
NKT hold licensed intellectual property from Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and Massachusetts General Hospital, developed by the company’s three scientific co-founders: Steven Balk, associate professor, division of oncology, Beth Israel; S. Brian Wilson, assistant professor of medicine, MGH diabetes unit; and Mark Exley, assistant professor of medicine, division of immunology, Dana-Farber.
SV Life Sciences is a Boston-based venture capital firm, founded in 1993, that runs five funds totalling about $1.6 billion in investments. In addition to NKT, SV Life Sciences has a New England portfolio that includes Waltham-based biopharmaceutical Logical Therapeutics Inc. and Lebanon, N.H.-based Adimab Inc., an antibody discovery startup.
Founded in 2002, MedImmune Ventures is a Gaithersburg, Md.-based venture capital firm that operates as part of the AstraZeneca.MedImmune group of firms.




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