Ori Biotech Ltd, a cell and gene therapy (CGT) manufacturing technology company, announced that it has secured over $100M in an oversubscribed Series B funding round led by Novalis LifeSciences.
New investors comprising Puhua Capital and Chimera Abu Dhabi also joined, along with existing investors like Amadeus Capital Partners, Delin Ventures, Northpond Ventures, and Octopus Ventures.
Fund usage
Ori says it will use the funding to “expand key personnel across all functions, to rapidly transition through pre-commercialisation to the launch of its innovative CGT manufacturing platform.”
Further, the company is also launching its Lightspeed Early Access Program (LEAP), allowing select partners to gain pre-launch access to its platform in 2022.
“Our mission as a company is to enable widespread patient access to life-saving cell and gene therapies. One of the biggest obstacles to achieving this is cell and gene therapy manufacturing processes that are too expensive, too highly variable, and too low throughput. Our team is focused on the urgent need to enhance the ability of cell and gene therapy developers, CDMOs, and Academic Medical Centers to deliver these therapies to as many patients as possible as quickly as possible,” said Jason C. Foster, CEO, Ori Biotech.
Offers personalised lifesaving treatments
Founded in 2015 by Dr. Farlan Veraitch, Ori Biotech is a London and New Jersey-based company that has developed a proprietary manufacturing platform that enables patient access to a new generation of personalised, life-saving treatments.
The company aims to speed up the innovation of cell and gene therapies through the manufacturing platform it is bringing to market.
The platform enables therapy developers, contract manufacturers, and academic researchers to seamlessly transition from pre-clinical process discovery through clinical trials to commercial scale.
With this platform, the company aims to fully automate CGT manufacturing to increase throughput and reproducibility.
Investors
Founded by Marijn E. Dekkers in 2017, Novalis LifeSciences is a boutique investment and advisory firm for the Life Science industry. The company focuses and invests in visionary Life Science entrepreneurs. In addition to financial investments, the VC firm also provides strategic and operational advice to portfolio companies.
Marijn E. Dekkers, chairman of Novalis, added: “Ori Biotech is the first investment out of our new fund, Novalis LifeSciences Investments II. Ori’s digital manufacturing platform will play a critical role in improving patient access to cell therapies, and opens new doors to commercial success for therapy developers.”
“We look forward to working with Paul, Marijn, and the team at Novalis LifeSciences whose vast experience in bio-enterprise scale-up will be invaluable as we enter the next phase of growth at Ori,” added Founder and Chief Scientific Officer Farlan Veraitch.
