US biopharmaceutical company Adicet Bio, Inc. has acquired Israeli company Applied Immune Technologies, Ltd. (AIT), which develops immunotherapies. No financial details were disclosed although at the same time Adicet announced the closure of a $51 million financing round led by OrbiMed Advisors LLC with the participation of Novartis Venture Fund and Israeli venture capital fund Pontifax. AIT will continue its operations in Israel as Adicet’s wholly-owned subsidiary.
Adicet CEO Dr. Aya Jakobovits said, “These significant financial resources will allow Adicet to progress its universal immune cell therapy (“uICT”) platform technology and related products and advance AIT’s programs and product pipeline. AIT’s technologies, capabilities, and intellectual property highly complement those of Adicet and position the combined company to become a leader in next-generation immunotherapy products for cancer and other indications.”
Based in Haifa, AIT specializes in generating and developing T-Cell Receptor-Like antibodies with high affinity and specificity to disease-specific intracellular peptides presented on the cell surface by the major histocompatibility complex. AIT also established Epitarget, a proprietary technology to identify and validate novel disease-specific peptide targets. AIT technology is based on work by Prof. Yoram Reiter, a world leader in the research of immunotherapies directed to the intracellular proteome, and Head of the Laboratory of Molecular Immunology at the Technion, Israel Institute of Technology, and Mira Peled-Kamar, Ph.D., AIT CEO.
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on January 27, 2016
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