Ensoma Raises $50 Million to Advance Genomic Medicine

Rare Daily Staff

Ensoma, a genomic medicines company developing in vivo treatments that precisely engineer any cell of the hematopoietic system, closed an extension of its series B financing by $50 million, bringing the total size of the funding round to $135 million.

New investors Kite, a Gilead Company, Bioluminescence Ventures, and Delos Capital and by existing investor SymBiosis joined a syndicate of leading healthcare funds to advance the development of Ensoma’s Engenious in vivo engineered cell therapy platform and pipeline of genomic medicines for immuno-oncology, genetic disease, and other therapeutic applications.

Other investors in the series B included 5AM Ventures, Arix Bioscience, Alexandria Venture Investments, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Catalio Capital Management, Cormorant Asset Management, F-Prime Capital, Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center, Mirae Asset, Qatar Investment Authority (QIA), Solasta Ventures, Takeda Ventures, and Viking Global Investors.

“Ensoma is creating a new generation of smart immune cell medicines by harnessing the concerted power of multiple immune cell types,” said Emile Nuwaysir, CEO of Ensoma. “There are millions of patients that need better answers. With this financing, we are well positioned to bring our breakthrough therapies to the clinic.”

Ensoma’s Engenious vectors platform is designed to deliver a diverse range of genome modification technologies—including those that require a high level of packaging capacity—directly to hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs) or the various cell types that arise from these cells, such as T cells, B cells and myeloid cells. The company’s vectors are optimized to work without the need for stem cell collection or prior myeloablative conditioning. As a result, Ensoma can design its therapies to be delivered via single injection in diverse environments, including outpatient and areas where access to sophisticated healthcare systems may be limited.

In connection with the extension financing, Kouki Harasaki, managing partner at Bioluminescence Ventures, will join Ensoma’s board of directors.

Photo: Emile Nuwaysir, CEO of Ensoma