Funding Oncorus’s Immunotherapy Platform: Next-generation Oncolytic Herpes Simplex Virus (oHSV) for Brain Cancer, Glioblastoma Multiforme (GBM)
Reporter: Aviva Lev-Ari, PhD, RN
Series A Funding in July 2016 and in December 2016
Jul 20, 2016 at 2:19 PM
- raised $57M to battle cancer —
SOURCE
http://medcitynews.com/2016/07/qa-ceo-oncorus-just-raised-57m-battle-cancer/?rf=1
MPM Capital
MPM Capital, which has around $2 billion in assets, is already working with drugmakers on funding healthcare startups. This includes a venture fund it closed last year at $400 million that included Novartis ($NVS) Astellas Pharma as investors.
http://www.fiercebiotech.com/biotech/ubs-raises-471m-for-a-new-kind-cancer-research-fund
(with equal contributions from MPM BV2014 and the Oncology Impact Fund), and included Deerfield Management, Arkin Bio Ventures, Celgene, Inc., Excelyrate Capital, Long March Investment Fund and MPM’s SunStates Fund.
- MPM BV2014 – OIF will co-invest with MPM’s BV2014 venture fund in private oncology company investments.
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/mpm-launches-471-million-social-194500117.html
- MPM Oncology Impact Fund (OIF)
https://www.ft.com/content/b5e1e678-0c6a-11e6-b0f1-61f222853ff3
-
Excelyrate Capital – one investment in Oncorus
COINVESTORS:
SOURCE
http://medcitynews.com/2016/07/qa-ceo-oncorus-just-raised-57m-battle-cancer/?rf=1
http://www.finsmes.com/2016/07/immuno-oncology-company-oncorus-completes-57m-series-a-financing.html
December 15, 2016
Oncorus®, Inc. Announces Additional Series A Financing Support From Astellas Venture Management LLC (AVM)
- AVM (61-57 = $4Million) – Now all proceeds are $61Million
Oncorus Management – “We are thrilled to have AVM join this outstanding group of high-quality investors.
http://www.oncorus.com/board-of-directors
- Industry veteran and Oncorus co-founder Mitchell H. Finer, Ph.D., leads the Oncorus management team as Chief Executive Officer and Chief Scientific Officer and
- Cyrus D. Mozayeni, M.D., serves as President and Chief Business Officer.
Finer serves on Oncorus’s Board of Directors along with:
– Luke Evnin, Ph.D., MPM Capital co-founder and Chairman,
– Briggs Morrison, CEO, Syndax;
– Cameron Wheeler, Ph.D., Principal, Deerfield Management; and,
– Alon Lazarus, Ph.D., Biotech Investment Manager, Arkin Bio Ventures.
This additional funding will help advance our immunotherapy platform as we discover innovative new therapies which we hope will be of benefit to patients in need and the physicians who treat them,” said Dr. Finer.
Oncorus licensed certain patent rights from the University of Pittsburgh based upon the work of renowned scientists Joseph Glorioso III, Ph.D., and Paola Grandi, Ph.D., who will join Oncorus’s Scientific Advisory Board.
The company will invest in researching and developing oncolytic viral constructs which will move through preclinical development and ultimately into clinical trials. Currently, the company’s lead candidate is in preclinical development for GBM. The company will also expand and improve its technology platform and accelerate the development of pipeline programs in other forms of cancer.
About AVM Astellas Venture Management LLC., based in Menlo Park, California, is a corporate venture capital of Astellas Pharma Inc. (“API”), headquartered in Tokyo, Japan. For over 15 years, AVM has been making strategic investments to achieve its mission to explore emerging innovative companies, which have potential to become API’s collaboration partners in R&D. For more information, please visit the website at www.astellasventure.com.
About Oncorus, Inc. Oncorus, Inc. is an early-stage biotechnology company developing a next-generation immunotherapy platform of oncolytic viruses to treat several types of cancer, including highly malignant and aggressive cancers. A leader in corporate philanthropy, Oncorus has taken a pledge to donate a portion of product sales revenue to fund promising cancer research and to support cancer care in the developing world. The company is located in Kendall Square, Cambridge, Massachusetts. Visit www.oncorus.com, for more information.
SOURCE
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This is very insightful. There is no doubt that there is the bias you refer to. 42 years ago, when I was postdocing in biochemistry/enzymology before completing my residency in pathology, I knew that there were very influential mambers of the faculty, who also had large programs, and attracted exceptional students. My mentor, it was said (although he was a great writer), could draft a project on toilet paper and call the NIH. It can’t be true, but it was a time in our history preceding a great explosion. It is bizarre for me to read now about eNOS and iNOS, and about CaMKII-á, â, ã, ä – isoenzymes. They were overlooked during the search for the genome, so intermediary metabolism took a back seat. But the work on protein conformation, and on the mechanism of action of enzymes and ligand and coenzyme was just out there, and became more important with the research on signaling pathways. The work on the mechanism of pyridine nucleotide isoenzymes preceded the work by Burton Sobel on the MB isoenzyme in heart. The Vietnam War cut into the funding, and it has actually declined linearly since.
A few years later, I was an Associate Professor at a new Medical School and I submitted a proposal that was reviewed by the Chairman of Pharmacology, who was a former Director of NSF. He thought it was good enough. I was a pathologist and it went to a Biochemistry Review Committee. It was approved, but not funded. The verdict was that I would not be able to carry out the studies needed, and they would have approached it differently. A thousand young investigators are out there now with similar letters. I was told that the Department Chairmen have to build up their faculty. It’s harder now than then. So I filed for and received 3 patents based on my work at the suggestion of my brother-in-law. When I took it to Boehringer-Mannheim, they were actually clueless.