Our India Ventures team today announced an investment in Immuneel Therapeutics, a venture focused on creating access to CAR-T and other cellular immunotherapies for the management and treatment of cancers in India. Our U.S. based sister fund, F-Prime Capital also participated in the round.

Globally, interest in CAR-T cell therapies is on the rise as a treatment modality that offers an effective option in otherwise refractory cancers, with two USFDA approved products now gaining market traction and several clinical trials underway to expand the addressable patient pool. Immuneel aspires to bring such therapies to India at a fraction of the currently prevailing price points.

Less than a year old, Immuneel has a formidable founding team: Biocon founder and chairperson Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw, Boston-based 5AM Ventures founder and life-sciences professional Kush Parmar, and Siddhartha Mukherjee, eminent oncologist and author of the Pulitzer prize winning novel, “The Emperor All Maladies: A Biography of Cancer”.

Immuneel has also garnered support from several other investors including heads of major hospital chains such as Dr. Devi Shetty and Ranjan Pai, who lead Narayana Health and the Manipal Group respectively, Apollo Hospitals, the country’s largest chain, and founders of leading pharmaceutical companies, including Pankaj Patel from Cadila Health and Arun Kumar from Strides Shasun.

Read our blog that explains why we believe in this revolutionary therapy and why we’re glad to have this opportunity to partner with such an experienced team.