Artiva Biotherapeutics, an affiliate of South Korean pharmaceutical firm Green Cross, announced Sunday that it has secured $120 million in Series B financing to develop natural killer (NK) cell-based cancer therapies.

Artiva Biotherapeutics said its new investor Venrock Healthcare Capital Partners has led the latest financing. Other new investors include Acuta Capital Partners, Cormorant Asset Management, EcoR1 Capital, Franklin Templeton, according to the company.

The injection of fresh capital is expected to boost Artiva Biotherapeutics’ development of NK cell-based therapies for treating cancer, the company said.

Set up in 2019 in San Diego, California, Artiva Biotherapeutics is an oncology-focused firm dedicated to developing and commercializing NK cell therapies for treating cancer.

In June last year, Artiva Biotherapeutics first received $78 million in Series A financing to develop NK cell therapies.

Green Cross LabCell also announced Artiva Biotherapeutics would co-develop three kinds of chimeric antigen receptor-engineered NK cell therapies with Merck, via its regulatory filing on Jan. 29 when the company signed a license agreement worth $1.8 billion with US-based pharmaceutical giant.

Of the $1.8 billion deal, Green Cross LabCell holds $981.7 million share, the company previously noted.

By Shim Woo-hyun (ws@heraldcorp.com)