Juno Closes $134M Series B Round

Total Investment Tops $300M in Less Than 12 Months

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Aug 05, 2014, 08:00 ET

SEATTLE, Aug. 5, 2014 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Juno Therapeutics, Inc., a biotechnology company focused on bringing forward novel immunotherapies for cancer, today announced that it has closed its Series B round with $134M in new investment.

This latest round includes new investments by ten public mutual funds and healthcare-focused funds. All major prior investors participated as well. The company will use proceeds from the Series B round to continue advancing its chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) and T-cell receptor (TCR) pipeline, including CAR T-cell therapies directed against CD19 currently in phase 1/2 trials and solid tumor targets.

Juno announced the close of its $176M Series A in April. Combining the A and B rounds, Juno has raised more than $300M in less than 12 months.

"Juno continues to make significant progress in developing new therapies with the potential to radically change the outlook for patients battling cancer," said Hans Bishop, CEO of Juno. "We are delighted by the vote of confidence coming from new Series B investors and founding investors alike. Our funding puts us in a strong position to move forward with multiple CAR-T and TCR therapies and invest in the science that will support continued innovation with these game-changing technologies."

Leerink Partners LLC acted as exclusive financial advisor in this transaction.

Juno Therapeutics launched in December 2013 and was co-founded with financial support from ARCH Venture Partners and the Alaska Permanent Fund through a partnership managed by Crestline Investors.

About Juno

Juno is a clinical stage company that brings together innovative technologies from three of the world's leading cancer centers – Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center and Seattle Children's Research Institute – to advance a broad pipeline of potential curative immunotherapy treatments. Juno will build on breakthroughs in the design of novel immunotherapies to develop two distinct and complementary platforms – chimeric antigen receptors (CARs) and T-cell receptors (TCRs). The CAR technology is designed to target cell surface antigens that are expressed on cancer cells. In addition, the high-affinity TCR technology can also detect alterations in intracellular proteins present in tumor cells. These treatments have the potential to reduce longer-term toxicities associated with current chemotherapeutics. Juno's goal is to drive multiple product candidates in select hematologic and solid tumor cancers to FDA licensure. Each candidate has the potential to treat a variety of high-risk cancers.

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SOURCE Juno Therapeutics