Fueling up

While crossovers joining Autolus Ltd.’s series C round don’t necessarily mean the chimeric antigen receptor T cell therapy company will follow fellow Syncona Ltd. (LSE:SYNC) portfolio company Nightstar Therapeutics plc (NASDAQ:NITE) to NASDAQ anytime soon, the financing does bring it a step closer to realizing investors’ ambitions of building a stand-alone commercial CAR T business.

On Tuesday, Autolus raised $80 million in a round led by founding investor Syncona, which invested $29.2 million to raise its stake to 38.4%. Existing investors Arix Bioscience plc (LSE:ARIX) and Woodford Investment Management kicked in $25.8 million, while the rest came from new investors including Cormorant Asset Management and Nextech Invest. Autolus is now Arix’s largest holding, accounting for about 13-14% of its assets. ...