OncBioMab announced the successful completion of a $70 million Series C financing round to accelerate the global development of CAR-T therapies for solid tumors.
Oricell Therapeutics Holdings Limited (hereinafter referred to as "Oricell Biotech", "Oricell", or "the Company"), a global leader in innovative oncology immunotherapy, announced today the completion of a US$70 million Series C1 financing round. This financing round was led by Beijing Medical and Health Industry Investment Fund, Qiming Venture Partners, and a globally leading medical fund, with participation from a certain international sovereign fund, NGS (Australian pension fund), Yizhuang Guotou, Lichen Investment, Ruifeng Capital, and other institutions.
As an innovation pioneer in the field of cell therapy drugs, Oricell Biotech has always been committed to developing CAR-T cell therapies with global clinical value and has generated proof-of-concept (POC) clinical data from multiple pipelines. Relying on its independently developed Ori®Ab antibody screening and engineering platform, Ori®Armoring structure platform, and OnGo(Fast) CMC process expertise, Oricell aims to occupy the global high ground in CAR-T technology with its differentiated pipelines.
Oricell's Ori-C101 is an autologous CAR-T drug targeting GPC3 for the treatment of advanced hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). It has completed the Phase I investigator-initiated clinical study and the registration Phase I clinical trial and is about to commence the pivotal Phase II clinical trial. The released clinical data have demonstrated excellent efficacy and safety and have been presented multiple times at top international academic conferences such as ASCO. This product is expected to become the world's first approved CAR-T drug for hepatocellular carcinoma.
Meanwhile, multiple next-generation multi-target and multi-mechanism CAR-T products are emerging from Oricell's entire platform. Its innovative secretory CAR-T OriC902 has achieved breakthrough efficacy in patients with end-stage solid tumors. The company's self-developed dual-target in vivo CAR-T product has initiated an exploratory clinical study, validating the technical potential of "off-the-shelf CAR-T" - generating CAR-T cells directly in patients' bodies, which greatly enhances the accessibility of cell drugs.
This US dollar financing will accelerate Oricell Biotech's internationalization and clinical development process, strengthen its technical capabilities in the field of cell therapy, and enhance the value of its industrialization pipelines.
Dr. Yang Huanfeng, Chairman and CEO of Oricell Biotech, said: "We are very grateful for the investors' recognition of the company. The company will continue to focus on the global clinical advancement of its core pipelines, the research and development of in vivo products and cutting-edge technologies. Leveraging the company's profound technical accumulation and the current opportunities in policies and the market, we will accelerate the development of clinical-stage products, bring new hopes of cure to global cancer patients with more breakthrough cell therapy solutions, and steadily move towards becoming a global leading immunotherapy company."
Mr. Ren Peng, Chairman and General Manager of Beijing Shunxi Private Fund Management Co., Ltd., said: "We believe that cell therapy is an important direction for conquering solid tumors. The clinical progress of Oricell Biotech's GPC3 CAR-T in the treatment of liver cancer has greatly surprised us. We highly recognize the R & D capabilities and commercial vision of the team and look forward to this financing round helping the company accelerate the global clinical breakthrough of its core products."
Mr. Hu Xubo, Managing Partner of Qiming Venture Partners, said: "As an early investor in Oricell Biotech, we have accompanied and witnessed the company's in-depth exploration and continuous progress in the CAR-T field: from autologous CAR-T to secretory CAR-T, then to the 3-day rapid production process, and the forward-looking layout of in vivo CAR-T. We have seen the company's continuous exploration in R & D. We are very glad to participate in the process that has the potential to produce global breakthrough technologies and products."