An Israel-based company, Gamida Cell Ltd., which already has products such as CordIn® for rare genetic diseases, and NK cells as a treatment for cancer in the pipeline has announced today, the signing of a $40 million financing. This fund is primarily aimed at supporting the company’s ongoing Phase 3 trial of the FDA Breakthrough Designated clinical-stage drug candidate, NiCord, to facilitate bone marrow transplantation.
A stand-alone graft retrieved from an umbilical cord blood unit expanded in-culture and enriched with progenitor cell is the company’s drug candidate, NiCord. It leverages the advantages of umbilical cord blood which does not require a full tissue match to be extended to a patient for treatment, and hence can be available to practically all patients in need.
The drug which has shown great capability in Trials 1 & 2 is currently enrolling patients for Phase 3 study as a graft for bone marrow transplantation in patients with blood cancer, who do not have fully matched donor. NiCord has an FDA Breakthrough Therapy Designation as well as FDA and EMA orphan drug designations, the most recent granted in March 2017.
The financing was led by Shavit Capital and other participants included new investors Israel Biotech
Fund, and VMS Investment Group, a Hong Kong-based investment group, as well as existing investor and major shareholder Novartis.