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Houston-based biopharmaceutical company (formerly known as ViraCyte) recently announced . led the deal. Participating investors include , , , , , , and .

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AlloVir is also the first venture to publicly join the portfolio of , a Cambridge, MA-based company which aims to advise and assist cell and gene therapy upstarts throughout the discovery, development, and commercialization lifecycle. Earlier this month, ElevateBio announced it raised led by . AlloVir financiers Samsara BioCapital, Redmile Group, and EcoR1 Capital also back ElevateBio.

According to published by ElevateBio on Wednesday, AlloVir 鈥渋s a leading innovator in allogenic, off-the-shelf, multi-virus specific T-cell immunotherapies.鈥� What does that mean?

Let鈥檚 break it down:1

• 鈥淎llogenic,鈥� meaning, basically, that biological material used to create the company鈥檚 treatments are sourced from (compatible) donors, rather than from the patient themselves.
• 鈥淥ff-the-shelf,鈥� in this specific case, means that AlloVir鈥檚 products could be integrated into a treatment regime immediately, sitting in storage in the meantime. In the context of T-cell therapeutics (which we鈥檒l get to in a moment), a treatment wouldn鈥檛 be 鈥渙ff the shelf鈥� if it required sampling, modifying, and culturing cells from the patient.
• Jumping out of order a bit: are a foundational part of the human immune system. There are many types of T cells, all of which play specific roles in responding to infection. Cancer patients, HIV positive people, transplant recipients, people with chronic infections, people with autoimmune diseases, or other immuno-suppressed populations have lower counts of these key cells. This makes them more susceptible to infection and illness.
• According , its primary T cell therapy offering, Viralym-M (ALVR105), can target six different viral pathogens, including: BK virus (which can affect kidney transplant patients), cytomegalovirus, adenovirus, Epstein-Barr virus (which causes mononucleosis, aka 鈥渕ono鈥�), JC virus, and human herpesvirus 6. Preliminary research findings on the company鈥檚 next therapy, ALVR106, which 鈥渢argets four common and devastating community-acquired respiratory viruses鈥� in the journal Haematologica last month.

So, basically, AlloVir is in the business of sourcing and training immune cells from healthy donors to fight viral infections in folks with compromised immune systems.

AlloVir鈥檚 therapies are still in clinical trials. The company from its Phase 2 study in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, finding that 93 percent of treated patience 鈥渄emonstrated a clinical response (or met clinical response criteria) following treatment with Viralym-M.鈥� ElevateBio CEO David Hallal that AlloVir will start Phase 3 trials of Viralym-M in 2020.

AlloVir鈥檚 as-yet-unnamed ALVR106鈥攖argeting respiratory syncytial virus, influenza, parainfluenza virus, and human metapneumovirus鈥攊s expected to enter the first phase of clinical trials within the next 12 months, according to coverage

This latest funding round brings AlloVir鈥檚 total backing to at least $159 million. The company (which at the time was still called ViraCyte) filed with the SEC in September 2018. The regulatory filing disclosed the company closed at least $30 million out of a targeted $50 million funding round. It鈥檚 unclear whether ViraCyte has closed the remaining $20 million from that round. Prior to that deal, the company from the Cancer Prevention and Research Institute of Texas.

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