LONDON – Biotech's most glamorous U.S. investors have put $104 million into the UK's Adaptimmune Ltd., a deal the BioWorld database confirms catapults the T-cell immunotherapy specialist into an elite club of just half a dozen companies ever to raise more than $100 million in a series A funding round.

The money will fund a big expansion of the company's clinical development program, with a small UK government grant-funded trial in triple-negative breast cancer that is due to start in 2015, now expanding to take in multiple sites in the U.S.

"That's why you go to the U.S.; there is a different philosophy about money. Investors want you to do your own programs, not do loads of deals," said James Noble, CEO. "It is quite a relief to be on a path to financial security, after all this time," he told BioWorld Today.

Since its formation in 2008, when the T-cell technology that was spun out of Oxford University a decade earlier was rescued from the wreckage of a German company, Adaptimmune has been funded by high-net-worth individuals. The amount raised has not been disclosed.

Now, as Noble highlighted, the company has a list of investment firms behind it, which "reads like a Who's Who of anyone you would ever want as an investor."

The backers are New Enterprise Associates, which led the round, with Orbimed Advisors LLC, Wellington Management Co. LLP, Fidelity Biosciences, Foresite Capital Management, Ridgeback Capital Management, Novo A/S, QVT, Rock Springs Capital, Venbio Select and Merlin Nexus. Existing investors, including Oxford University, put in $4 million.

David Mott, of New Enterprise Associates, is joining the board of Oxford, UK-based Adaptimmune.

The new funding comes on top of an $350 million deal with Glaxosmithkline plc, sealed in June, in which the partners agreed to work together to take the lead product, in which a patient's T cells are engineered against the NY-ESO-1 cancer testis antigen, to phase II proof of concept. At that point GSK has an option to take a full license.

"We have come a long way from the beginning of the year, when we had no partner and £1 million in the bank," Noble said.

Adaptimmune actually set out to raise a smaller sum than $104 million, but the round was oversubscribed and had to be scaled back. "We hit a consensus from investors in the U.S. that you need serious money to exploit your own programs," he noted.

The round speaks to the fact that T-cell immunotherapies based on a patient's own T cells have now accumulated sufficient clinical data to be likely to make it to market.

"Look at the names of the investors and the intense amount of due diligence they have done, and consider that they also know about all the other investment opportunities. This is a huge endorsement," Noble said.

While the handful of other T-cell immunotherapy companies have data showing an effect in hematological cancers, Adaptimmune is alone in having demonstrated an impact in solid tumors. It has data on the treatment of sarcoma that are due to be released in the near future.

After the breast cancer trial starts in 2015, testing will be expanded into other tumor types.

The deal with GSK includes the two companies working together on the development and optimization of the process for engineering T cells.

Adaptimmune shares the T-cell engineering platform technology with its sister company, Immunocore Ltd., which is developing T-cell receptor cancer vaccines. Noble said the big private round for Adpatimmune has no implications for Immunocore, which is already well financed, having signed four high-value deals with Eli Lilly and Co., Genentech, Astrazeneca plc and GSK.

Until earlier this year, Noble was CEO of both companies, but with the fundraising in hand, he moved over to devote himself to Adaptimmune. "You can't raise money part-time, so it all had to be rearranged," he said.

Even given that Adaptimmune is embarking on expensive clinical trials, Noble said the $104 million will last "quite a number of years." Exactly how long will hinge on how well the collaboration goes with GSK on the lead program. The new money also will lead to a significant expansion of the business, with staff numbers at the Oxford headquarters expected to double from 40 to 80.

In other financings news:

Avanir Pharmaceuticals Inc., of Aliso Viejo, Calif., said it priced a public offering of 18.2 million shares of common stock at $11 per share for gross proceeds of $200.2 million. Net proceeds will be used to fund Nuedexta (dextromethorphan hydrobromide/quinidine sulfate) commercial activities, ongoing and future clinical trials, the commercial launch of AVP-825 and general and administrative expenses. J.P. Morgan, Deutsche Bank Securities and BofA Merrill Lynch are acting as joint book-running managers, while Piper Jaffray and JMP Securities are acting as co-managers. Avanir has granted underwriters a 30-day option to purchase up to an additional 2.7 million shares of its common stock in connection with the offering, which is set to close on or about Sept. 29. Shares of Avanir (NASDAQ:AVNR) gained 34 cents to close Wednesday at $11.65.

Foamix Pharmaceuticals Ltd., of Rehovot, Israel, said it closed its initial public offering, selling a total of 6.7 million shares priced at $6 apiece. Foamix granted underwriters a 30-day option to purchase up to 1 million additional shares. In its prospectus, the company said its top priority is to move its lead candidate, FMX101, a minocycline foam formulation, into phase III and other pre-launch studies needed to file for approval in moderate to severe acne. (See BioWorld Today, Sept. 18, 2014.)

Oncoceutics Inc., of Hummelstown, Pa., said it closed an oversubscribed private placement funding round led by Spring Mountain Capital LP with additional private investors' participation. Proceeds will be used to accelerate phase I and phase II development of lead product ONC201, a small-molecule antitumor drug. The company said its program of phase I/II protocols will enroll more than 150 patients with leukemia, lymphoma and solid tumors.

Tesaro Inc., of Waltham, Mass., priced $175 million aggregate principal amount of its 3 percent convertible senior notes due 2021 in an underwritten public offering. The size of the offering was increased from the previously announced aggregate principal amount of $165 million, and Tesaro granted underwriters a 30-day option to purchase up to $26.3 million aggregate principal amount of additional notes on the same terms and conditions to cover overallotments. The offering is expected to close on or about Sept. 29. Net proceeds are expected to total about $169.3 million. The firm intends to use about $18.1 million to fund the payment of the cost of capped call transactions, and remaining proceeds will fund commercialization activities for rolapitant (oral formulation); clinical trials for rolapitant (intravenous formulation), niraparib and Tesaro's other product candidates; carrying out its immuno-oncology platform strategy; and for working capital and general corporate purposes.

Tokai Pharmaceuticals Inc., of Cambridge, Mass., closed its initial public offering of about 6.5 million shares priced at $15 apiece, resulting in gross proceeds of $97.2 million. Proceeds will support work on lead compound galeterone, a selective, multitargeted, oral small-molecule prostate cancer drug in phase II trials in castrate-resistant prostate cancer. The drug is expected to enter pivotal trials in the first half of next year. (See BioWorld Today, Aug. 13, 2014, and Sept. 18, 2014.)

Vitae Pharmaceuticals Inc., of Fort Washington, Pa., priced its initial public offering of about 6.9 million shares at $8 apiece, lower than the anticipated $11 to $13 price range previously set. Gross proceeds will total about $55 million, with another $8.2 million expected if underwriters Stifel, BMO Capital Markets, JMP Securities and Wedbush Pacgrow Life Sciences exercise their full overallotment option. The company, which filed as an emerging growth company in the S-1 disclosed last month, will use proceeds to support a phase I trial of VTP-43742, its preclinical autoimmune therapy targeting RAR-related orphan receptor gamma-t; the filing of an investigational new drug application for phase I trials of VTP-38443, its preclinical LXR agonist for the treatment of acute coronary syndrome; a phase I study of VTP-38543, a potential atopic dermatitis treatment; and continued drug discovery efforts. The company's most advanced product, 11beta-HSD1 inhibitor VTP-34072 for type 2 diabetes, is partnered with Boeheringer Ingelhim GmbH, of Ingelheim, Germany, and is in phase II development. On its first day of trading, Vitae's stock (NASDAQ:VTAE) opened at $8 and fell 39 cents to close Wednesday at $7.61. (See BioWorld Today, Aug. 15, 2014.)