VIB spin-off Orionis Biosciences secures $55 million and advances into clinical trials
The proceedings will allow the company to expand its R&D activities and advance its lead cancer immunotherapy programs into clinical trials
Orionis Biosciences, a VIB spin-off company founded in 2015 based on the research of Jan Tavernier (VIB-UGent Center for Medical Biotechnology), has closed a capital round of $55 million that will allow the company to expand its R&D activities and advance its lead cancer immunotherapy programs into clinical trials.
Since its inception, Orionis Biosciences has further developed its proprietary A-Kine™ biologics and Allo-Glue™ platforms in their ambition to target core disease vulnerabilities and reach previously intractable targets. The spin-off company, which started out in the Technologiepark in Ghent, and in the biotech cluster in Boston, USA making best use of capital and talent on both sides of the ocean.
This latest financing round was carried by both existing and new investors such as Cormorant Asset Management, Novartis and a series of high-calibre investment funds. To boot, Orionis has appointed Robert Petit as its Senior VP for Early Clinical Development. Bihua Chen of Cormorant Asset Management was also welcomed into Orionis’s Board of Directors.
Nikolai Kley, CEO at Orionis: “We are grateful for the strong support of a world-class investor syndicate that shares our passion for advancing new modalities in cancer and other diseases. As we near the clinic, we are thrilled to bring on Robert Petit, Ph.D., a pioneer in the development of cancer immunotherapies, as our Head of Early Clinical Development. In addition, we are pleased to welcome industry veteran Bihua Chen to our Board as we enter this next stage of growth. With two distinct precision medicine platforms, which focus on expanding druggability through genome-scale molecular glue discovery and on selectively targeting immune cells with conditionally active cytokines to reactivate the cancer immunity cycle, we are well-positioned to advance a diverse pipeline and translate our innovative approaches into new therapies.”
Orionis is rapidly advancing a deep pipeline of biologics for the treatment of cancer, based on its A-Kine™ platform, which engineers target-selective, conditionally active cytokines designed to trigger anti-tumor immune responses even in “cold” tumors that lack prevalent immune involvement and are refractory to checkpoint inhibitor therapies. A-Kines aim to avoid the systemic toxicities observed with traditional cytokine therapies.
In addition, Orionis is developing a diverse spectrum of small molecule molecular glues using its Allo-Glue™ platform, harnessing a first-in-class, genome-scale approach to discovery and rational design of molecular glues in order to reach previously intractable targets. Orionis will present preclinical data from its molecular glue platform at the 5th Annual Targeted Protein Degradation conference from the 25th until the 28th of October in Boston, Massachusetts.
