US-based immuno-oncology therapy developer OncoResponse has closed a $22.5m series A round after securing a $3m fourth tranche from by investment firm HT Family Office and unnamed existing shareholders.
Helsinn Investment Fund, the investment arm of cancer care provider Helsinn and VC firm GreatPoint Ventures injected a total of $7m in October 2016, following a $3m commitment by Baxalta, the biopharmaceutical company since acquired by pharmaceutical firm Shire, four months earlier.
Cancer treatment centre MD Anderson and VC firms Arch Venture Partners and Canaan Partners co-led the round’s initial $9.5m tranche in late 2015, with participation from William Marsh Rice University and life sciences property group Alexandria Real Estate Equities.
OncoResponse has developed technology to screen the immune system of patients who have responded well to cancer immunotherapies, with the aim of identifying new antibodies that could form the basis for new treatments.
The company was spun out by MD Anderson, part of University of Texas, and biopharmaceutical company Theraclone Sciences in 2015. The series A capital will go towards continuing efforts to identify antibodies and potential targets for treatments.
OncoResponse CEO Clifford Stocks said: “With the final closing of our series A, we look ahead to the continued development of our research programs that aim to expand the promise of immuno-oncology by identifying therapeutically relevant antibodies from patients with elite response to cancer immunotherapy in a number of oncology indications.”