Ensoma has emerged with $70m in series A financing to advance research from Fred Hutchinson and University of Washington.

US-based genomic medicine developer Ensoma launched on Thursday with $70m in series A financing to commercialise research from University of Washington and Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center. 5AM Ventures led the round, which also included financial services group Fidelity’s F-Prime Capital unit, Viking Global Investors, Cormorant Asset Management, RIT Capital Partners and Symbiosis II. Life sciences real estate investment trust Alexandria Real Estate Equities and pharmaceutical firm Takeda invested through Alexandria Venture Investments and Takeda Ventures, respectively, with the latter supplying $10m. Takeda separately entered into a strategic collaboration agreement that included a $100m upfront payment and is worth up to a total of $1.25bn. Ensoma is working on single injection treatments for common and rare diseases, without the need for stem cell collection or prior interventions such as chemotherapy. Its approach relies on engineered adenovirus vectors to deliver genome medication tehcnologies into the body. The company was co-founded by 5AM Ventures together with scientific co-founders Hans-Peter Kiem of Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center and André Lieber of University of Washington’s School of Medicine. – A version of this article first appeared on our sister site, Global Corporate Venturing.

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Thierry Heles

Thierry Heles is the editor of Global University Venturing, host of the Beyond the Breakthrough interview podcast and responsible for the monthly GUV Gazette (sign up here for free).