Oncobiologics, a US-based biosimilar producer backed by pharmaceutical company Strides Arcolab, raised $31m in a series D round led by hedge fund Perceptive Advisors yesterday.
Cormorant Global Healthcare Master Fund, Longwood Capital Partners, VenBio Select Fund, Proximare Lifesciences Fund, OSSB Pharma Fund and MIH Fund also took part in the round.
Founded in 2011, Oncobiologics has developed a platform dubbed BioSymphony that enables biosimilars – a copy of an original drug made by a different company whose patent has expired – to be manufactured cost effectively.
Oncobiologics will use the funding to support the further development of the platform and to advance its pipeline of preclinical and clinical programmes.
Strides Arcolab provided an undisclosed amount of series C funding for Oncobiologics in July 2014. Proximare, OSSB and MIH are also existing investors in the company, though no details have been disclosed.
Pankaj Mohan, CEO of Oncobiologics, said: “We highly value the significant interest, confidence and financial support of such a successful group of life science investors, which enables us to further our objective of bringing critical care therapeutics to patients in a cost effective manner.”