Cell Design raises $34.4M, partners with Kite

Cell Design Labs Inc. (San Francisco, Calif.) raised $34.4 million in venture funding led by Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, with participation from Kite Pharma Inc. (NASDAQ:KITE), Osage Ventures, Mission Bay Ventures and undisclosed private investors. In a separate partnership also announced Thursday, Cell Design granted Kite exclusive, worldwide rights to develop chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T cell therapies using Cell Design's " University of California San Francisco Professor Wendell Lim, including CAR constructs that are activated in the presence of a small molecule.

Atwood declined to disclose financial details or identify targets covered by the Kite partnership. Kite did not respond to inquires. ...