Vittoria Bio Secures $15 Million to Support Development of Novel CAR-T Cell Therapies

Rare Daily Staff

Vittoria Biotherapeutics said it has secured more than $15 million in a private financing round that will be used to advance its lead candidate, VIPER-101, for the treatment of T-cell lymphoma, into the clinic.

The funding round, led by Valley Forge Investment Corporation, includes investments from institutions such as Agent Capital, Tellus BioVentures, the University of Pennsylvania, BioAdvance, NYBC Ventures, and The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society Therapy Acceleration Program (LLS TAP), among others.

The capital will support Vittoria’s clinical development initiatives and advance its next-generation cell therapies that strengthen efficacy, improve safety, and broaden therapeutic applicability for patients with cancer and autoimmune diseases.

“This financing brings us one step closer to validating the promise of our Senza5 platform technology and to delivering life-changing therapeutic solutions to patients dealing with some of the most difficult to treat diseases,” said Nicholas Siciliano, CEO of Vittoria. “With a targeted focus on streamlined operations and an emphasis on cash efficiency, we plan to use this capital to advance our lead program, VIPER-101 – for the treatment of T-cell lymphoma – into the clinic in early 2024.”

T-cell lymphoma is a progressive disease with a poor prognosis and limited treatment options. About 10,000 cases are diagnosed annually in the United States.

VIPER-101 is an autologous, dual population CD5-knockout CAR-T cell therapy that was developed using the company’s novel Senza5 platform technology, based on technology exclusively licensed from the University of Pennsylvania.

Vittoria’s proprietary cell therapy engineering and manufacturing platform, Senza5, combines the power of genetic engineering and a proprietary five-day manufacturing process. Senza5 is designed to maximize stemness, durability and efficacy of its produced cell therapies by disabling the CD5 signaling pathway on engineered CAR-T cells, and bypassing CD5’s immunosuppressive effects to amplify the therapy’s antitumor activity.

Stemness is further enhanced by the expedited five-day manufacturing process which promotes greater in vivo expansion and durability, and the potential for longer-lasting responses. By acting on the fundamental biology of T cells, Senza5 can be widely utilized to improve the efficacy of engineered T-cell therapies with pipeline applications in oncology and autoimmune diseases.

Photo: Nicholas Siciliano, CEO of Vittoria