ORIC Pharmaceuticals raises $55m to advance cancer resistance drugs

US oncology company ORIC Pharmaceuticals has raised $55 million through a Series D financing round to advance its pipeline of cancer resistance drugs, as per the latest pharma industry news.

The financing brings the total capital raised by the San Fransisco-based ORIC Pharmaceuticals to more than $175 million.

Leading the Series D financing round of the US oncology company are new investors Arrowmark Partners and Invus Opportunities, who were joined by Hartford HealthCare Endowment, Casdin Capital among others.

Existing investors of ORIC Pharmaceuticals, which included The Column Group, TopSpin Partners, OrbiMed, EcoR1 Capital, Fidelity Management & Research Company, Kravis Investment Partners, City Hill Ventures, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, Taiho Ventures, and Foresite Capital also took part in the latest financing round.

Jacob Chacko – ORIC Pharmaceuticals CEO said: “We are pleased that through this Series D financing, we have expanded our investor base with additional prominent investors who are joined by our existing syndicate in supporting ORIC’s work on behalf of patients with cancer.

“Over the past year, we have significantly reshaped ORIC’s senior leadership team by recruiting a new CMO, CSO, CBO, and SVP of Clinical Development, all of whom have deep expertise in oncology drug discovery and development. This stellar team, combined with a strong balance sheet, enable us to advance our pipeline of internally generated programs. In addition, we are well positioned to opportunistically and selectively augment our pipeline with external assets that fit within ORIC’s vision and that leverage our team’s expertise.”

ORIC Pharmaceuticals secures $55m financing to advance cancer resistance drugs. Image courtesy of renjith krishnan at FreeDigitalPhotos.net

The US oncology company will use the proceeds for the continued clinical development of its lead candidate, ORIC-101, a selective glucocorticoid receptor (GR) antagonist, one of its cancer resistance drugs, in various phase 1b studies and advance into one or more phase 2 clinical trials.

According to ORIC Pharmaceuticals, the current or future phase 1b studies of ORIC-101 include a combination of the GR antagonist with Abraxane (nab-paclitaxel) in patients with solid tumors and a combination with an androgen receptor modulator in metastatic prostate cancer patients.

The proceeds from the Series D financing round will also be used for advancing the company’s second program, which is an orally available, small molecule inhibitor of CD73 into clinical development and also for furthering the preclinical development of other pipeline cancer resistance drugs designed to target the mechanisms of therapeutic resistance in cancer.

Richard Heyman – co-Founder and Chairman of ORIC Pharmaceuticals said: “Our Board and investors continue to be excited about the therapeutic potential of ORIC-101 as well as the broader pipeline that addresses the problem of cancer treatment resistance.

“The support of our investor syndicate strengthens ORIC’s foundation and will help ORIC achieve its mission of overcoming resistance in cancer.”

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