ArsenalBio has closed an oversubscribed Series C financing round, securing $325m to propel its programmable cell therapy programmes through clinical development.

The funds will support the advancement of the company's lead programmes and innovation in cell therapy tools and processes.

This financing round attracted new investors including ARCH Venture Partners, Luma Group, Milky Way Investments Group, NVentures and Regeneron Ventures.

Existing investors Bristol-Myers Squibb, Byers Capital, Hitachi Ventures, Kleiner Perkins, the Parker Institute for Cancer Immunotherapy, SoftBank Vision Fund 2 and Westlake Village BioPartners also took part.

The investment will advance ArsenalBio’s T-cell engineering technology, which includes logic gating, and develop its pipeline of therapeutic candidates for solid tumours.

These funds will aid in the development of tools and approaches that could lead to the detection of new candidate cell therapies.

ArsenalBio’s pipeline comprises potential therapies being developed for ovarian, kidney and prostate cancers, among other solid tumours.

The assets are being co-developed in partnership with Bristol-Myers Squibb.

The company's recent progress includes initiating a Phase I/II clinical trial for its second T-cell product candidate, AB-2100, targeting clear-cell renal cell carcinoma.

AB-2100 previously received fast track designation from the US Food and Drug Administration.

ArsenalBio co-founder, CEO and chairman Ken Drazan stateed: “Our initial clinical trials and preclinical studies have shown the promise of our T-cell engineering approach and have given us the confidence to broaden the application of our technology to address additional cancer types.

“This new investment enables us to continue our development roadmap, scale up our manufacturing capabilities, and invest in new avenues for innovation in T-cell medicine.”