Orchard Therapeutics, a UK-based gene therapy spinout of University College London, closed a $150m oversubscribed series C round featuring medical marketing group Medison and healthcare management services provider Sphera Global Health Care on Monday.
The round was led by Deerfield Management. Medison participated through its strategic investment vehicle, Medison Ventures.
Temasek, the Singaporean state-owned investment firm, also participated, as did RA Capital Management, Venrock, Foresite Capital, Perceptive Advisors, Cormorant Asset Management, ArrowMark Partners, Driehaus Capital Management, Ghost Tree Capital, Baillie Gifford, RTW Investments, Cowen Healthcare Investments and Agent Capital.
Orchard is working on gene therapies for rare, potentially fatal diseases and the series C proceeds will support work on its most developed drug candidates.
The company’s lead product candidates include treatments for metabolic disorder Adenosine deaminase deficiency, immune disorder Wiskott-Aldrich syndrome and a lysosomal storage disease called metachromatic leukodystrophy.
Orchard had raised a total of more than $140m when pharmaceutical firm GlaxoSmithKline took a 19.9% stake in the company in April 2018 as part of a licensing agreement, including $110m in a December 2017 series B round backed by the UCL Technology Fund, a university venture fund managed by Albion Capital on behalf of tech transfer office UCL Business.
Baillie Gifford and ORI Capital co-led the series B round, which also featured Temasek, Cowen Healthcare Investments, RTW Investments, Agent Capital, Juda Capital, Pavilion Capital, 4Bio Capital and F-Prime Capital.
Orchard received the GUV Deal of the Year award for its series B round at this year’s GUV: Fusion conference.
UCL Technology Fund, UCL Business and F-Prime Capital had previously backed a $30.7m series A in 2016.
Frank Thomas, Orchard’s chief financial officer, said: “This financing provides Orchard with additional capital to rapidly progress our most advanced clinical programs to commercialisation.
“We are advancing our pipeline of potentially transformative gene therapies in primary immune deficiencies and neurometabolic disorders to reach patients as quickly as possible.”
– A version of this article first appeared on our sister site, Global Corporate Venturing.
