OMass Therapeutics Raises $100 Million in Series B Financing to Progress Drug Pipeline in Immunology and Rare Diseases
OMass Therapeutics, a biotechnology company that identifies medicines against highly validated target ecosystems, today announces its $100 million (£75.5 million) Series B financing round.
The international syndicate of top-tier life science specialists was led by new investors, GV, Northpond Ventures and Sanofi Ventures, with existing investors, Syncona, Oxford Science Enterprises and Oxford University also participating. Proceeds from the financing will be used to advance OMass’s portfolio towards clinical trials. This includes the development of an insurmountable antagonist of the MC2 receptor for congenital adrenal hyperplasia, a gasdermin D inhibitor for the treatment of inflammatory diseases, a GPR65 agonist for the treatment of inflammatory bowel disease and two earlier-stage programs targeting solute carriers.
Ros Deegan, CEO of OMass, said: “The completion of this oversubscribed round with such high-calibre investors is recognition of the significance of our OdyssION™ platform and its potential to support the development of an exciting portfolio of novel drug candidates. We have already made significant progress against highly validated but previously ‘undruggable’ targets and can now accelerate them towards clinical development while continuing to expand our pipeline.”
Originally spun out of Oxford University, OMass has commercialised Professor Dame Carol Robinson’s breakthrough research in native mass spectrometry to develop its proprietary drug discovery platform, OdyssION™. The platform integrates novel biochemistry techniques, next-generation native mass spectrometry, and custom chemistry, to allow for the interrogation of protein interactions within its native ecosystem while avoiding the confounding complexity of the cell. OMass’s OdyssION™ platform delivers several key benefits in the search for new drugs against previously intractable targets, including discovering drug binders with high sensitivity without filtering on activity, establishing an unambiguous link between binding and function to drive smart lead optimization, and identifying natural allosteric sites that can be targeted for drug discovery.
Following the financing, Scott Biller, Ph.D., Executive Venture Partner at GV, Diana Bernstein, Ph.D., Vice President at Northpond Ventures, and Laia Crespo, Ph.D., Partner at Sanofi Ventures, will join the OMass Board of Directors.
Scott Biller, Ph.D., Executive Venture Partner at GV, said: “By studying proteins in their native state as found within the cell, the OMass platform can address many important targets that have been elusive until now. Through this platform, OMass has created an impressive portfolio of therapeutic programs with the potential to dramatically improve the lives of patients.”
Diana Bernstein, Ph.D., Vice President at Northpond Ventures, said: “OMass is fundamentally shifting the process by which we identify and evaluate chemistry for the most challenging drug targets. Native mass spectrometry uniquely permits simultaneous evaluation of drug binding and functional effect, and OMass is a leader in this pursuit.”
Laia Crespo, Ph.D., Partner at Sanofi Ventures, said: “OMass’s vision and the potential of its platform aligns with the purpose of our fund. As a strategic venture investor, we support top tier life science entrepreneurs with innovative ideas and transformative new products and technologies of strategic interest to Sanofi. We partner with management to advance innovation that has the potential to deliver new approaches that can transform patients’ lives and we look forward to supporting OMass as it develops new drugs for the treatment of rare diseases and immunological conditions.”
Edward Hodgkin, Ph.D., Chair of OMass’s Board of Directors and Partner at Syncona added: “We are pleased with this financing round which will support OMass as it looks to progress its pipeline of small molecule drugs. The strength of this global group of top tier life science investors reflects confidence in the company’s technology and supports our ambition to build a sustainable therapeutics business that has the potential to develop novel drugs in areas of high unmet medical need. We are also delighted to welcome Scott Biller, Diana Bernstein and Laia Crespo to the OMass Board, all who have significant experience in transforming technology platforms into sustainable drug discovery and development businesses.”
