Jason C Foster, CEO of Ori Biotech, which was founded five years ago, said closing a significant Series A round, during such uncertain times, further validates the startup’s “disruptive approach to fully automating CGT manufacturing.”
The Series A investor syndicate was led by Northpond Ventures, a global science, medical, and technology-driven venture fund, alongside Octopus Ventures, a European venture fund. The round was also supported by Ori’s existing institutional investors, Amadeus Capital Partners, Delin Ventures, and Kindred Capital.
The new funding raised will be used to help bring that bespoke manufacturing platform to market, which the biotech startup anticipates will occur mid-2022.
“As early investors in disruptive life sciences platform technology companies, we have seen how cutting-edge technologies like Ori’s can bring significant value to the industry and lead to breakthroughs for patients,” said Michael Rubin, CEO of Northpond Ventures.
Dr Farlan Veraitch, one of the startup’s cofounders, studied the production of monoclonal antibodies in his PhD work and went on to automate the culture of embryonic stem cells. He created Ori Biotech with the idea of scaling up the production of CGT.
The company’s platform has been designed specifically to address “the unique requirements” of a new generation of personalized cell and gene therapies.
“Therapies that start with patient or donor material and require processing at a manufacturing facility are a new challenge for the biotech industry. Currently, these processes are highly manual, creating very high costs and variability. The Ori platform increases throughput, decreases variability and decreases costs so that more patients can get access to these life-saving treatments,” a spokesperson for Ori Biotech told BioPharma-Reporter.
