Ori Biotech has raised around £75 million to launch its cell and gene therapy manufacturing platform into the market.
The Ori platform enables therapy developers, contract manufacturers and academic researchers to transition from pre-clinical process discovery through clinical trials to commercial scale.
The London company is also launching its Lightspeed Early Access Program, allowing select partners to gain pre-launch access to the Ori platform in 2022.
The Series B investment round was led by Novalis LifeSciences with Puhua Capital and Chimera Abu Dhabi coming in as new investors.
Existing investors from Ori’s $30m Series A round in 2020, including Amadeus Capital Partners, Delin Ventures, Northpond Ventures and Octopus Ventures, also participated.
Life-saving therapies
“Our mission as a company is to enable widespread patient access to life-saving cell and gene therapies,” said CEO Jason C. Foster.
“One of the biggest obstacles to achieving this is cell and gene therapy manufacturing processes that are too expensive, too highly variable and too low throughput.
“Our team is focused on the urgent need to enhance the ability of cell and gene therapy developers, CDMOs and Academic Medical Centers to deliver these therapies to as many patients as possible as quickly as possible.”
Paul Meister, partner at Novalis LifeSciences, who will be joining the Ori board of directors, added: “We view Ori Biotech as the best-in-class solution to solve many of the significant challenges now facing CGT researchers and developers.
“We think Ori is well positioned, and are pleased to partner with their industry leading management team.”