Oct. 27 Quick Takes: Advancing ‘atlas’ of immunology, Immunai raises $215M

An investor syndicate led by Koch Disruptive Technologies has backed Immunai Inc. with $215 million in series B capital that will enable the company to further build and deploy its Annotated Multiomic Immune Cell Atlas (AMICA), which is designed to inform target discovery and R&D. Immunai said it has more than 30 partnerships with pharmas and academic institutions. The round, which also included Talos VC, 8VC, Alexandria Venture Investments, Piedmont, ICON and other undisclosed investors, builds on $80 million in prior funding. Immunai has acquired Swiss bioinformatics firm Nebion AG and San Francisco-based software company Dropprint Genomics Inc. this year.

Takeda Pharmaceutical Co. Ltd. (Tokyo:4502; NYSE:TAK) said it will exercise its exclusive option to acquire GammaDelta Therapeutics Ltd., which the pharma gained via a 2017 deal that netted the U.K.-based cell therapy company up to $100 million up front. Seeded by Abingworth Management in 2016, GammaDelta is developing allogeneic blood- and tissue-derived γδ T cell therapies for cancer; the company credited the build-to-buy structure of its Takeda deal for its ability to advance multiple platforms at once...