One of the biggest ever investments into a Welsh life sciences firms has seen TrakCel securing a multi-million-pound equity boost.
Cardiff-based TrakCel, a leading supplier of cellular orchestration solutions supporting the cell and gene therapy industry, has closed its latest funding round led by top ten Fortune 500 firm AmerisourceBergen and Labcorp.
The equity investments from the two New York listed life sciences firms, will enable Trakcel to accelerate global expansion through further development of its cellular therapy orchestration solution.
The exact value of the investment round has not been disclosed, but is an eight figure amount.
TrakCel will use both the investment and the combined expertise gained from collaborations with the investors to further augment its offering to both clinical and commercial-stage cell and gene therapy developers.
TrakCel has developed a portfolio of live deployments in the industry across a range of therapies, from autologous and allogeneic therapies, personalised cancer vaccines and CRISPR (a technology that can be used to edit genes), to tumour and marrow infiltrating lymphocyte therapies.
The backing of AmerisourceBergen will allow TrakCel to significantly expand its reach. It will also enable the two companies to offer services that drive them toward further standardisation of the delivery of cell and gene therapies.
Co-founder and chief strategy officer of TrakCel, Ravi Nalliah, said: "The close of this funding delivers a unique opportunity to propel the improvement and evolution of our product and services portfolio in order to exceed expectations across the quickly evolving cell and gene therapy space.
“In addition, this investment enhances our already considerable digital ecosystem of partners. TrakCel now has the funding and the partnership support to take advantage of our market and industry experience gained as the first orchestration solution to the cell and gene therapy marketplace.”
Doug Cook, president of commercialisation and animal health at AmerisourceBergen: “The advanced therapy sector is producing major advances in treatment that will revolutionise healthcare and the treatment of diseases with currently limited therapeutic options.
"It is essential that partners to manufacturers find ways to innovate on behalf of the patient and provider to enhance the treatment experience. By working with TrakCel, we’ll unlock new ideas and generate new value for all therapy participants, truly living our purpose of creating healthier futures.”
Labcorp’s chief scientific officer of drug development, Steve Anderson, said: “The tools and technologies developed by TrakCel to support the critical needs of advanced therapy logistics are a good complement to the services that we supply for cell and gene therapies.
“The ability to more effectively orchestrate those activities, paired with Labcorp’s deep scientific and clinical expertise, makes our collaboration an important aspect for the successful delivery and commercialisation of advanced therapies.
"Our investment in TrakCel also further demonstrates our commitment to the area of precision medicine.” TrakCel wouldn’t disclose what stake the two investors now have in the business.
