<article>Transcell Biologics Pvt Ltd, a Hyderabad-based biotechnology company, is in talks with existing as well as new investors to raise up to $9 million, the company&#8217;s chief executive told DEALSTREETASIA.</article>

Transcell Biologics Pvt Ltd, a Hyderabad-based biotechnology company, is in talks with existing as well as new investors to raise up to $9 million, the company&#8217;s chief executive told DEALSTREETASIA.
&#8220;Our existing investor <a href="https://www.dealstreetasia.com/?s=Indian+Angel+Network" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Indian Angel Network</a> (IAN) has committed to bridge in the subsidiary named Transcell Oncologics,&#8221; said S Dravida, founder of Transcell Biologics.
&#8220;Soft commitment has been received from one Indian venture capital firm for co-investment while two investors are in active discussions for leading the round. The deal is expected to close in the next couple of months,&#8221; she added.
Transcell Oncologics has built a real time platform technology from its standalone cancer patients-derived tumorospheres repository. Its proprietary toolbox chemistry accelerates the group&#8217;s ability to deliver targeted cure for cancers. The company was founded in 2011.
&#8220;Transcell Oncologics is developing first-in- class investigational new drugs (INDs) for cancers adopting disruptive strategy of hunting for selective killers of patient sourced cancer stem cells/xenografts in the discovery process. The disruption is with the time taken, costs involved in the process with high probability of developing all new targeted investigational drugs with mechanism of actions (MOA) revealed to cure cancers. The company has secured proprietary novel exclusive toolbox based nature inspired complex macrocyclic small molecules library and has early in-house breakthrough data on drugability with pipeline qualifying for head &amp; neck, colon cancers,&#8221; S Dravida further said.
In the process, the biotech company is willing to offload up to 30 per cent equity stakes to investors, whereby the investment will go into strengthening the lead pipeline to commercialize the developed first-in-class INDs.
Transcell has appointed Delhi-based Transjovan Capital as transaction advisor for the fresh fund raise. &#8220;Unlike some biotech ventures in India that have only sales or scale to showcase with limited competitive edge to differentiate themselves, Transcell offers a risk mitigated business model for investors to invest in, by way of creation of multiple intellectual property (IP) assets over time. It&#8217;s for a reason, why astute investors like Peter Thiel chose to invest in a biotech startup in similar space (Stemcentrx) that eventually got sold out for over $10 billion,&#8221; said Gaurav Asthana, managing partner of Transjovan Capital.
Last year, IAN invested $1.4 million in Transcell Oncologics.
It will use the new funding for expansion of oncologics vertical including tumor sample &amp; PDX acquisition cost and capital expenditure.
The other companies in the similar space of drug discovery include Abbvie, Novartis, Bayer Healthcare, Boehringer Ingelheim, Celgene, Genentech, Teva Pharmaceutical, Industries, AstraZeneca and Seattle Genetics.
This year, companies like US-based Guardant Health <a href="https://www.dealstreetasia.com/stories/72499-72499/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">raised</a> $360 million in a financing round led by Japanese investment giant SoftBank, and Bangalore-based oncology chain Healthcare Global Enterprises Ltd (HCG) <a href="https://www.dealstreetasia.com/stories/india-hcg-to-buy-majority-stake-in-cancer-care-kenya-68929/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">acquired</a> a majority stake in Cancer Care Kenya Limited (CCK), a cancer centre in Nairobi, Kenya. In 2015, Abbvie bought cancer drug startup Stemcentrx for $10.2 billion.
Also Read:
<a href="https://www.dealstreetasia.com/stories/72499-72499/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">SoftBank leads $360m funding in cancer screening firm Guardant Health</a>
<a href="https://www.dealstreetasia.com/stories/india-hcg-to-buy-majority-stake-in-cancer-care-kenya-68929/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">India: HCG to buy majority stake in Cancer Care Kenya</a>

Transcell Biologics, a Hyderabad-based biotechnology company, is in talks with existing as well as new investors to raise upto $9 million.

Exclusive: Hyderabad-based Transcell Biologics in talks to raise up to $9m

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Exclusive: Hyderabad-based Transcell Biologics in talks to raise up to $9m

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