MIAMI, April 22, 2019 /PRNewswire/ — Rapha Capital Management, LLC (https://www.raphacap.com), an investment management firm located in Miami, Florida, and their associated entities announced today their participation in a Series C financing for Poseida Therapeutics (“Poseida”). The investment round was led by Novartis Pharma, AG, who were joined by new institutional investors and those with current positions in the company. Rapha Capital invested $2.25 million in this Series C financing round, through Rapha Capital Investment VI, LLC, an entity managed by Rapha Capital, adding to its previous investment of $1 million in Poseida’s Series A-1 financing, through Rapha Capital Investment III, LLC, in 2017.
Rapha Capital is an investment management firm focused on making strategic investments in early stage, non-public biotechnology companies, through special purpose joint venture entities which it manages. Rapha Capital’s mission is to use its unique abilities to identify at the earliest stage, those companies that it believes will go on to profoundly improve peoples’ lives while building great value, from a sea of seemingly indistinguishable, less compelling, opportunities. Rapha Capital was founded by its President, Kevin Slawin, M.D., a successful and experienced oncologic and robotic surgeon, biotech consultant, investor, and founder, focusing on disruptive technologies in oncology, T cells and immunotherapies, and other breakthrough healthcare technologies. He is the founder of Bellicum Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (“Bellicum”), a publicly traded company listed on NASDAQ, leading Bellicum to a successful $161 million IPO in December, 2014. He also plays a guiding role in several of the investments managed by Rapha Capital in certain companies, serving as a board observer at Neximmune, Inc. (https://www.neximmune.com), and as a board member at both Asclepix Therapeutics, Inc. (http://www.asclepix.com/) and 3DBio Therapeutics, Inc. (https://3dbiocorp.com/).
“T cell therapy, whether via checkpoint inhibitors, or via gene-modified Chimeric Antigen Receptor (CAR), or non-gene modified enriched and enhanced, T cells, has revolutionized oncology, positively impacting the prognosis of a broad range of cancer patients with hematologic cancers and solid tumors. Poseida Therapeutics has a number of unique technologies that allows them to create best-in-class T cell therapies for the treatment of cancer,” commented Kevin Slawin, M.D., President of Rapha Capital Management. “We recognized the transformative potential of immunotherapy early on, founding Bellicum Pharmaceuticals, one of the first cellular immunotherapy companies in 2004, and have been a supporter of Poseida Therapeutics since 2017,” Slawin added.
About Rapha Capital Management, LLC
Rapha Capital Management, LLC is an investment management firm located in Miami, Florida, focusing on strategic investments in early stage, non-public biotechnology companies. Rapha Capital was founded by its President, Kevin Slawin, MD, formerly the Dan Duncan Professor of Prostate Cancer and Prostatic Diseases at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, TX where he performed oncologic and robotic prostate cancer surgery, and biotech consultant, investor, and founder focusing on disruptive technologies in oncology, T cells and immunotherapies, and other breakthrough healthcare technologies. He is the founder of Bellicum Pharmaceuticals, Inc., a publicly traded company listed on NASDAQ. He is co-Inventor of the FDA-approved “prostate health index (phi)” test licensed and marketed by Beckman Coulter and utilized around the world. He has published extensively in top medical and scientific journals including the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA), Journal of the National Cancer Institute (JNCI), and the New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM). He has also been routinely listed in America’s Top Doctors for Cancer (Castle Connolly Medical) and The Best Doctors in America (Woodward/White). In 2003, he was awarded the F. Brantley Scott, Jr., Award for Innovation and Creativity in Urology.
