Iovance Biotherapeutics and Adaptimmune brought first-of-their-kind cell therapy cancer treatments to market. Others had to retrench. Adaptimmune, a biopharma company in the Navy Shipyard, won FDA approval for a new type of cancer therapy (Tecelra) that uses the immune system to target cancer cells. The photo shows a quality control specialist. Two Philadelphia biotech companies scored approval in 2024 for first-of-their-kind gene therapy treatments for solid cancer tumors and melanoma.
But local industry heavyweight Spark Therapeutics retrenched under Swiss owner Roche Group. This month, it pulled the plug on a gene therapy for a blood clotting disorder, hemophilia A, that Roche had called theThe year also saw weak demand for laboratory space and operated under the specter that Congress would ban the Chinese-owned biotech research and manufacturing firm WuXi AppTec. WuXi has a large presence in the Navy Yard and is a vital service provider for the sector.The number of biopharma deals continued falling this year, but the region saw logged six private equity deals valued at $100 million or more. Uniquity Bio, a Malvern company focused on immunology and inflammation, revealed that it had up to $300 million in backing to start phase 2 clinical trials for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease treatment. Third Arc Bio, a Lower Gwynedd start-up founded by Johnson & Johnson vets, announced in July that it had raised $165 million to pursue T cell treatments for solid tumors and inflammatory and immunology disease. Mineralys Therapeutics, a publicly-traded company in Radnor, collected $120 million from private investors in February to help it develop medicines to target hypertension and chronic kidney disease. Reunion Neuroscience and Context Therapeutics, both in Philadelphia, also raised at least $100 million from private investors. Reunion, which took in $103 million in May, is working on psychedelic treatments for mental illnes