Philadelphia Biotech Funding Jumps Elevenfold as New Firms Move In
Philadelphia’s long-promised biotech moment is arriving all at once. Startups are moving in, big companies are building, and funding is up elevenfold.
Philadelphia biotech companies raised $389.4 million across 16 deals through the third quarter of 2026, more than eleven times the total for all of 2025, according to the first market report from B+labs, the University City incubator. Three Series A rounds led the way: Latus Bio at $97 million, Nava Therapeutics at $89 million and RhyGaze at $86 million.
The report also carried a warning. Just four rounds accounted for 87 percent of the money, and no company has raised a Series B or C round this year. The median check was $3.5 million.
New arrivals are choosing Philadelphia over bigger hubs. CellFiber, a Tokyo biotechnology company, opened its first international subsidiary in Philadelphia on Oct. 1, setting up offices and labs at CIC Philadelphia to support American developers of cell and gene therapies with its 3D cell culture technology.
Thermo Fisher Scientific has opened its East Coast flagship Advanced Therapies Collaboration Center in Philadelphia, its second such center in the United States after Carlsbad, California, giving local researchers lab space and development support for cell and gene therapy programs.
Innata Bio, founded in Los Angeles as Carthronix, moved its headquarters to Lilly Gateway Labs at 2300 Market Street in University City. Co-founder Ben Van Handel said the company considered Boston, San Diego and San Francisco but chose Philadelphia for its scientific community and lower costs, estimating 30 percent lower overhead. The company is seeking a $33 million Series A for its injectable knee osteoarthritis treatment.
The big commitments keep coming. Eli Lilly is building a $3.5 billion manufacturing plant in the Lehigh Valley, the largest biotech project in Pennsylvania history, and GSK is spending $800 million on a Montgomery County facility that will keep 4,500 employees in the state and add 300 jobs over five years. Developers just secured a $290 million construction loan for an 11-story University City life sciences building, set to be the largest in the city, with SmartLabs and Drexel University pre-leasing nearly half its 519,647 square feet.
The pipeline is moving too. Century Therapeutics presented data supporting an FDA filing for CNTY-813, its stem cell-derived islet therapy for type 1 diabetes, expected in the fourth quarter of 2026. Latus Bio will present four abstracts at the European Society of Gene and Cell Therapy congress on Oct. 28 and 29.
Philadelphia has long heard the knock that it discovers and Boston profits. With funding up elevenfold and companies moving in instead of out, that old line is getting harder to repeat.