The ultrasound therapeutics developer, a University of Oxford spinout, has raised series B2 funding in the run-up to clinical testing of its cancer drug delivery platform.
OxSonics Therapeutics, a UK-based ultrasound cancer drug delivery technology spinout of University of Oxford, has completed an oversubscribed £10.5m ($13.1m) series B2 round with undisclosed new and existing investors.
Founded in 2013, OxSonics is working on a technology called SonoTrans intended to bolster the efficacy of existing cancer drugs.
SonoTrans exploits an approach called inertial cavitation in which ultrasound is used to form bubbles capable of penetrating deeper into cancerous tumours.
The series B2 cash will go to preparing the technology for initial clinical trials and completing work toward OxSonics’ other strategic objects.
In addition to SonoTrans, OxSonics founded an offshoot called OrthoSon in 2015 to commercialise ultrasound-assisted technology for lower back surgery.
Both technologies build on developments supervised by Constantin Coussios, a professor of biomedical engineering who leads University of Oxford’s Institute of Biomedical Engineering.
OxSonics and OrthoSon collectively secured more than £9.4m ($11.4m) of series B funding in 2017 from University of Oxford and Perivoli Innovations – a division of investment group Perivoli Trust – in addition to Longwall Venture Partners, Winton Ventures and undisclosed new and existing investors, including multiple individuals.
The funding was raised at a valuation four times greater than that of OxSonics’s $4.4m series A round in 2014, led by Longwall Venture Partners.
