Startup Gritstone Oncology Gets $102 Million in Venture Capital

Venture capitalists have invested $102 million in Gritstone Oncology’s efforts to develop personalized cancer vaccines.
According to Fierce Biotech:

Working under the direction of a group of high-profile biotech execs, Gritstone plans to initially go after lung cancer as it sets out to succeed in a field that has so far been largely a colossal disappointment.
As is often the case these days, Gritstone won’t be the only upstart to spotlight the same goal. Third Rock and SR One provided a $55 million Series A just a few weeks ago to fund Neon Therapeutics, which has gathered together a group of scientific leaders in neoantigens to launch a company with a multifaceted approach to immuno-oncology. And more startups may be in the works as well as VCs funnel cash into one of the hottest fields in biotech.
Gritstone is being helmed by Andrew Allen, a co-founder and former chief medical officer at Clovis Oncology ($CLVS), which is now going head-to-head against AstraZeneca ($AZN) in a late-stage race on two cancer drug programs. Allen left Clovis back in June to start Gritstone and Patrick Mahaffy, the CEO at Clovis, is stepping in as chairman of the startup, with Rich Heyman, who launched and sold Aragon and Seragon in blockbuster deals with Big Pharmas, on the board.
Allen started working in immuno-oncology years before he tackled the job at Clovis. And when he came across a paper from Tim Chan on neoantigens, it struck him as a “beautiful opportunity around what feels like and looks like a big science idea.”

Click here to read the full article on Fierce Biotech.