Synopsis
The Bengaluru-based company makes CAR-T therapy, a form of cancer treatment where a patient’s own immune cells are taken out, trained in a lab to fight cancer, and then put back into the body. The treatment has been seen as a major breakthrough globally, but has remained out of reach for most patients because it is highly expensive and difficult to manufacture.Listen to this article in summarized format
The round saw participation from Singularity AMC, Rainmatter by Zerodha, high-net-worth individuals, and existing investors, including Mazumdar-Shaw, Eight Roads Ventures and F-Prime Capital.
The Bengaluru-based company makes CAR-T therapy, a form of cancer treatment where a patient’s own immune cells are taken out, trained in a lab to fight cancer, and then put back into the body. The treatment has been seen as a breakthrough globally, but has remained out of reach for most patients because it is highly expensive and difficult to manufacture.
Immuneel will use the capital to increase production capacity for Qartemi, its CAR-T therapy for blood cancers, and expand into Southeast Asia, other parts of Asia Pacific and the Middle East.
Amit Mookim, chief executive of Immuneel Therapeutics, told ET that the company’s immediate focus is to make the treatment available to more patients at lower costs.
“For us, what we are trying to solve for is to build capacity at scale at cost-effective ways,” Mookim said. “The cost of this therapy in the West is almost $400,000 to $500,000. And for the patient, it ends up being $600,000 to $700,000. We have brought it at 10% of this cost. And our endeavour is to bring it down even further as we put more scale.”
The company’s main challenge now, Mookim said, is not finding hospitals but producing the therapy at larger scale. “India is a large market. We’ve tied up with all the large hospitals, all the leading cancer institutions. What we are now trying to solve for is to scale,” he said.
