No heel needed for Achilles

Not having any clinical data under its belt has not stopped Achilles Therapeutics from closing a series B financing round that puts it in UK biotech’s all-time top five venture capital raises. While the company will not disclose the valuation at which today’s £100m ($120m) series B raise was done this will likely stand in the hundreds of millions of dollars, representing a huge uplift for Syncona, its founding investor. Syncona’s last disclosed stake in the company, 69%, was carried at a valuation of just $28m. Achilles focuses on the development of unmodified, expanded, autologous TILs (tumour-infiltrating lymphocytes) targeting clonal neoantigens, and has a lead project, ATL001, that recently started clinical trials in melanoma and non-small cell lung cancer. Knowing Syncona’s views on the public markets, and the fact that the series B round was led by a new US fund, RA Capital, there can be little doubt that a Nasdaq IPO is in the works for Achilles.