WindMIL Therapeutics raises $32.5 million

WindMIL Therapeutics, a Baltimore-based company specializing in cell therapy to treat cancer, closed on $32.5 million in Series B funding, the company announced on Monday.
The round was led by Qiming Venture Partners USA, a healthcare-focused U.S. arm of Chinese investment firm Qiming founded in 2017. Additional investors include Medivate Partners and Baltimore-based Camden Partners Nexus, along with existing backers Domain Associates and FOXKISER.
Three-year-old WindMIL Therapeutics was founded by Johns Hopkins faculty members Ivan Borrello and Kim Noonan. Based out of Johns Hopkins’ FastForward 1812, the biotech company is working in cell therapy, which involves enlsisting living cells to treat cancer. WindMIL is developing a process that can activate Memory T cells – which are believed to be a potent force in fighting disease – derived from bone marrow to treat cancer. The idea is that the result of the process, which the company calls MILs, will be used in new cancer treatments.
Currently, the company is conducting a study on using the process to treat multiple myeloma, which is cancer of plasma cells found in bone marrow.
“Preclinically, we are excited by the data we have been generating to demonstrate MILs as a superior cell source to produce next generation CAR-T cells,” WindMIL Therapeutics CEO Brian Halak said in a statement.
With the funding, the company is planning clinical trials for treating solid tumors.