Another cell therapy biotech has run out of steam, this time before ever reaching the clinic. California CAR-T company Appia Bio has closed up shop, founding CEO JeenJoo “JJ” Kang, Ph.D., wrote in an Aug. 25 LinkedIn post.
Appia was preparing to file an investigational new drug application for its off-the-shelf cell therapies, which involve reprogramming stem cells to turn them into a rare type of tumor-targeting immune cell called invariant natural killer T (iNKT) cells.
“Our team steadfastly made scientific progress and got to the cusp of filing our IND for clinical testing,” Kang wrote. But the company has now run out of funds to advance into human trials.
The company raised a $52 million series A in May 2021, followed by what Kang described as a “small extension round.”
“We hoped for green shoots in the spring of 2025,” Kang wrote. Instead, “heartbreakingly, we had reached the end of our road.”
Based in the Los Angeles area, Appia was co-founded in 2020 by Nobel Laureate David Baltimore, Ph.D. The biotech’s cell therapy platform was based on research from Lili Yang, Ph.D., an associate professor at the University of California, Los Angeles who worked under Baltimore as a student and postdoc at the California Institute of Technology.
Other Appia leaders included alumni of Gilead’s Kite Pharma, Edmund Kim, Ph.D., and Jeff Wiezorek, M.D. Not long after its series A, Appia announced an agreement to develop iNKT-based cell therapies for blood cancers with Kite. The total value of the deal, which would see Appia lead development of two candidates based on chimeric antigen receptors provided by Kite, could have reached $875 million.
2025 has been a difficult year for biotech startups, especially in cell therapy. Another cancer CAR-T company, Oncternal, announced plans to sell off its assets and cease operations in July.