Fierce Biotech | August 2, 2019: Rakuten Medical has raised $100 million to advance its pipeline of photoimmunotherapy oncology prospects. The biotech hopes to use antibodies and light to destroy cancer cells while leaving healthy tissues unharmed.
Since setting up shop in 2015, Rakuten Medical, formerly known as Aspyrian Therapeutics, has raised close to $500 million to invest in development of photoimmunotherapy candidates. The idea is to conjugate antibodies to a dye that responds to a certain type of light. Once the drug binds to the target antigen, exposure to light triggers anti-cancer effects, thereby driving the precision destruction of tumors.
