The Santa Monica, California-based cell therapy developer raised around $130m (€123m) in an initial public offering (IPO) in 2014, and has now announced a second offering of 4,750,000 shares to raise approximately $347.4m.
“We intend to use the net proceeds from this offering to support commercialization activities of axicabtagene ciloleucel, if approved, to support clinical activities related to KTE-C19 and our other CAR- and TCR-based product candidates,” the firm said in its prospectus.
It will also be used to expand internal R&D capabilities to explore the next generation of chimeric antigen receptor (CAR)-based technology, and to support further expansion in Europe.
“We may also use a portion of the net proceeds to acquire or license new product candidates or technology that could result in other product candidates, although we do not have current plans to do so.”
Axicabtagene ciloleucel – previously known as KTE-C19 – is an autologous cell therapy being developed to treat chemorefractory diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL).
The product is made over six to eight days using Kite’s proprietary genetic engineering technology in which a the cells are re-engineered to seek and selectively destroy cancer cells while leaving normal cells unharmed.
The modified cells are then frozen and shipped back to the patient where they are re-infused into the patient.