UPMC in Pittsburgh Launched a A drug discovery and development company focused on cancer treatment.
Is called Novacenta, The company’s work will focus on the tumor microenvironment—the in vivo ecosystem that surrounds and interacts with tumors—to develop immunotherapies. It will utilize a proprietary platform that can apply cell analysis, animal models and machine learning to help discover new targets for drug development.
The company is currently focusing on T cell targets and plans to launch its first clinical trial before the end of 2023.
Novasenta, also located in Pittsburgh, was founded in 2018 by Dr. Robert Ferris, Dario Vignali, and Dr. Greg Delgoffe, all of whom work at UPMC Hillman Cancer Center and the University of Pittsburgh. It is one of three local life science start-ups incubated by UPMC Enterprises and the University of Pittsburgh in the past four years.
“We are building on the decades of successful research by our founders in the fields of tumor biology, immunology, computational biology and drug discovery,” the recently appointed Novasenta CEO Mani Mohindru said in a press release. “Our expanding team brings a wide range of skills and expertise to our unique platform, allowing us to integrate a wide range of relevant disease data into our discovery and verification process to develop more effective cancer therapies.” Mohindru Previously held leadership positions at biopharmaceutical companies CereXis and Cara Therapeutics.
UPMC invested $20 million in Novasenta through UPMC Enterprises, the innovation and venture capital arm of the health system.
Novasenta will compete in a crowded but rapidly developing arena. According to a report, the global oncology drug market is valued at approximately US$128 billion in 2019 and is expected to reach US$222 billion by 2027. Joint Market Research Report Released earlier this year.
Several startups and companies in the field of cancer biotechnology have raised millions of dollars in funding this year, including Janux Therapeutics Received 125 million U.S. dollars In the B round of financing a few months ago.
Not to mention, Pfizer is betting heavily on Trillium Therapeutics (a clinical-stage biotechnology company that is adopting a new cancer immunotherapy approach). Acquired for US$2.3 billion.
Photo: Metamorworks, Getty Images
