Be Bio’s New $130m Raise Will Advance B-Cell Therapies Toward The Clinic

 
• By Joseph Haas
  
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Biotech is developing engineered B-cell therapeutics for rare diseases and cancer. They should offer greater duration and better tolerability than T-cell therapies, the company claims.

B cells
Be Bio aims to bring engineered b-cell therapies to cancer and rare disease patients • Source: Alamy

Be Biopharma has raised a $130m series B financing from new and existing investors to bring what it describes as a novel type of cell therapy – Engineered B Cell Medicines (BeCM) – closer to the clinic in oncology and rare diseases. While not offering specifics on timelines or indications, CEO Joanne Smith-Farrell suggested that one of the company’s early focuses is on improving upon current enzyme replacement therapies such as Sanofi’s Fabrazyme (agalsidase beta) or Takeda Pharmaceutical Co. Ltd.’s Vpriv (velaglucerase alfa).

“If you look at rare disease, your current enzyme replacement therapies are given by infusion, they have a relatively short...

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