UK-based gene therapy developer Orchard Therapeutics closed an oversubscribed series C round featuring medical marketing group Medison and healthcare management services provider Sphera Global Health Care at $150m on Monday.
The round was led by Deerfield Management and Medison participated through its strategic investment vehicle, Medison Ventures.
RA Capital Management, Venrock, Foresite Capital, Perceptive Advisors, Cormorant Asset Management, ArrowMark Partners, Driehaus Capital Management, Ghost Tree Capital, Temasek, Baillie Gifford, RTW Investments, Cowen Healthcare Investments and Agent Capital also invested.
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.
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.”
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 co-led by Baillie Gifford and ORI Capital.
Temasek, Cowen Healthcare Investments, RTW Investments, Agent Capital, Juda Capital, Pavilion Capital, 4Bio Capital, F-Prime Capital and UCL Technology Fund also contributed to the series B round, the latter two having backed its $30.7m series A in 2016.