AlloVirs IPO Raises $276M to Test Cell Therapies in Transplant Patients

Speaking to Xconomy last year, company co-founder and Chief Scientific Officer Ann Leen, an immunologist at the Baylor College of Medicine, likened the process to growing an immune system outside of the body, and giving it to transplant patients at the first sign of infection. A complete response, defined as the viral load returning to the range found in healthy people and resolution of the signs and symptoms of infection, was observed in 17 patients. But the company faces potential competition from South San Francisco-based Atara Biotherapeutics (NASDAQ: ATRA), which has advanced an allogeneic cell therapy called tabelecleucel to Phase 3 testing. AlloVir was founded in 2013 based on technology developed in Leen’s research lab, which is part of the Center for Cell and Gene Therapy at Baylor. According to the prospectus, AlloVir plans to use the IPO cash to advance Viralym-M to a Phase 3 study testing it against hemorrhagic cystitis, inflammation of the bladder that is a virus-associated complication faced by stem cell transplant patients.