Regenerative medicines play Semma raises $114M

Semma Therapeutics Inc. (Cambridge, Mass.) raised $114 million in a series B round led by Eight Roads Ventures and Cowen Healthcare Investments. Fellow new investors ORI Healthcare Fund, Wu Capital, 6 Dimensions Capital and SinoPharm Capital also participated along with existing investors MPM Capital, F-Prime Capital Partners, Arch Venture Partners, Novartis AG (NYSE:NVS; SIX:NOVN), Medtronic plc (NYSE:MDT) and the JDRF T1D Fund.

Semma is developing a cell therapy for Type I diabetes that could eliminate the need for daily insulin injections and blood glucose monitoring. The company has an exclusive license from Harvard University to IP covering an in vitro protocol used to generate insulin-producing pancreatic beta-like cells from induced pluripotent stem cells (see BioCentury, Sept. 21, 2015). ...