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Orchard Therapeutics, a biotechnology company dedicated to transforming the lives of patients with rare disorders through innovative gene therapies, announced the completion of an oversubscribed $110 million (£85 million) Series B financing.
Baillie Gifford and ORI Capital co-led the financing with significant new investments from Temasek and Cowen Healthcare Investments, alongside Juda Capital, Pavilion Capital, RTW Investments, Agent Capital, 4BIO Capital and existing investors F-Prime Capital and UCL Technology Fund. In conjunction with the financing, Simone Song, senior partner at ORI Capital, has been appointed to Orchard’s board of directors.
Proceeds of the Series B round will be used to rapidly progress Orchard’s pipeline, including the global launch of OTL-101, and to expand their manufacturing infrastructure and business development activity. Orchard’s lead product, OTL-101, is an autologous ex-vivo lentiviral gene therapy in development for the treatment of adenosine deaminase severe combined immunodeficiency (ADA-SCID), a rare and life-threatening inherited disorder of the immune system. OTL-101 has been granted Breakthrough Therapy Designation by the FDA and is currently in late stage clinical development. Orchard’s pipeline includes other clinical and pre-clinical stage transformative gene therapies for immune deficiencies, including X-linked chronic granulomatous disease (X-CGD) and metabolic diseases, including MPS-IIIA and MPS-IIIB (Sanfilippo syndrome type A and type B).
Simone Song, senior partner at ORI Capital and Orchard’s new Board member, said, “Orchard has quickly established itself as a force in gene therapy. We are delighted to co-lead this financing and provide our support to deliver multiple life-saving medicines in this pipeline to patients with severe genetic diseases.”
Peter Singlehurst, investment manager at Baillie Gifford, said, “We are pleased to support Orchard in their mission to create life saving therapies for terrible genetic diseases. With their deep expertise in ex-vivo gene therapy they have the potential to become a leading gene therapy and rare disease company, not only in the UK, but globally.”
Alex Pasteur, a partner at F-Prime Capital, Orchard’s founding institutional investor, and a director of Orchard, added “The size of this financing greatly exceeds the initial goal. This speaks to the quality of Orchard’s pipeline and to the expertise of the team. We are delighted that a top-tier investor syndicate with international reach has supported Orchard.”
Mark Rothera, CEO of Orchard, said “This financing further empowers Orchard to deliver on our vision to be a leading, global, fully-integrated company that transforms the lives of patients through innovative gene therapy. In collaboration with our stakeholders, we are committed to translating our outstanding clinical data into therapies for patients with the greatest need, as quickly as possible. This financing makes meeting this challenge possible.”
About Orchard Therapeutics
Orchard Therapeutics is a privately-held clinical-stage biotechnology company based in the UK and in California, US. Orchard is dedicated to transforming the lives of patients with rare disorders through innovative gene therapies.Orchard works in partnership with some of the world’s leading centres in gene therapy, including University College London, Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children NHS Foundation Trust, the University of Manchester and Central Manchester University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, the University of California Los Angeles and Boston Children’s Hospital.
In 2016 the company was named a Fierce 15 Company by Fierce Biotech. Also, Orchard and UCLA were awarded a $19 million grant from the California Institute of Regenerative Medicine (CIRM) in 2016 to advance the development of autologous ex-vivo lentiviral gene therapy in ADA-SCID.
About ORI Capital
ORI Healthcare Fund is a US$200 million venture capital fund focused on investing in innovative companies with disruptive technologies in the healthcare industry globally. The fund is founded by Ms. Simone (Hong Fang) Song, former investment banker and head of China Healthcare at Goldman Sachs. The team consists mostly of former Goldman Sachs bankers and healthcare scientists. The Fund is supported by a network of most renowned scientists, practitioners and entrepreneurs.
About Baillie Gifford
Baillie Gifford employs over 980 people and has assets under management and advice of over £166 billion as at 30 June 2017. An asset management firm founded in 1908, it is headquartered in Edinburgh where most of its staff live and work.
About Temasek
Incorporated in 1974, Temasek is an investment company headquartered in Singapore. Supported by 10 offices internationally, Temasek owns a S$275 billion (US$197 billion) portfolio as at 31 March 2017, mainly in Singapore and the rest of Asia.
Our portfolio covers a broad spectrum of industries: financial services; telecommunications, media & technology; transportation & industrials; consumer & real estate; life sciences & agribusiness; as well as energy & resources. Our investment activities are guided by four investment themes and the long term trends they represent: Transforming Economies; Growing Middle Income Populations; Deepening Comparative Advantages; and Emerging Champions.
For more information on Temasek, please visit www.temasek.com.sg
About Cowen Healthcare Investments
Cowen Healthcare Investments was founded to capitalize on the tremendous pace of change and innovation in the healthcare sector. The team has considerable biopharma investing experience and a disciplined investment history driven by deep diligence of underlying science. Cowen Healthcare Investments principally invests in mid- to late-stage private biopharma and digital health companies with scientifically validated targets, compounds, and technologies. We focus on companies with disruptive science, targeting a significant unmet medical need, and experienced management teams.
About F-Prime Capital
F-Prime Capital is a leading international venture capital firm with a focus on healthcare and life sciences that is backed by Fidelity Investments. F-Prime Capital has invested over US$ 1 billion through five venture funds. F-Prime Capital has extensive experience investing in company creation and in rare diseases, gene and cell therapies, including prior investments in Denali Therapeutics, Ultragenyx, Adaptimmune, Proteostasis, Dimension Therapeutics, REGENXBio, Precision Biosciences, FoldRx, and Caribou Biosciences.
Contacts
Corporate contact
Nicolas Koebel
+44 (0) 7717 801246
nicolas.koebel@orchard-tx.com
Media contact
Allison Blum, Ph.D.
LifeSci Public Relations
+1 516 655 0842
Allison@lifescipublicrelations.com
