Bengaluru: Immuneel Therapeutics, a cell and gene therapy company founded by Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw, has raised over Rs 100 crore from new investors, including Singularity AMC, Rainmatter by Zerodha, and several high-net-worth individuals. Immuneel is an integrated platform focused on developing and commercialising advanced therapies for cancer and other diseases.
Following the commercial launch of Qartemi, an approved CAR-T therapy for Non-Hodgkin Lymphoma, the company is expanding into high-growth emerging markets and advancing clinical co-development partnerships in Australia and Southeast Asia. It operates India's first international-standard CAR-T platform, delivering advanced therapies at a fraction of the cost in Western markets.
CAR-T therapy is a personalised treatment that uses genetically engineered versions of a patient's own immune cells to identify and destroy cancer cells. Immuneel has commercialised the therapy in India at roughly one-tenth of global costs, significantly improving patient access. The company is now expanding manufacturing capacity and investing in innovations aimed at further reducing costs and broadening access.
"The funding strengthens our ability to build a globally competitive CAR-T platform from India, combining deep science, scalable manufacturing and significantly improved affordability. We believe India can play a meaningful role in shaping the future of cell and gene therapy for the world," Mazumdar-Shaw said.
Immuneel CEO Amit Mookim said the capital will be deployed across three areas: scaling manufacturing capacity to meet growing demand, advancing global programmes in CAR-T and autoimmune disorders, and localising manufacturing technologies and critical input materials to reduce costs and build intellectual property in India.
Mookim said that CAR-T therapies developed in the West typically cost between $400,000 and $500,000 per patient. "We saw an opportunity to bring these therapies to India at a much lower cost and create a solution that could serve patients across emerging markets, including the Middle East, Africa, Southeast Asia and parts of Europe. Today, the therapy costs about Rs 30-40 lakh in India, less than 10% of the cost in the US or Europe. Our goal is to reduce costs further over time," he said.
This investment marks a significant milestone for Immuneel as it aims to make advanced cancer therapies more accessible and affordable globally.
