Orchard Therapeutics completes Series C financing round

Commercial-stage company — Orchard Therapeutics — has completed its Series C financing round, raising $150 million to be used in the advancement of its gene therapy pipeline.

The financing round was led by Deerfield Management and included significant new investments from RA Capital Management, Venrock, Foresite Capital, Perceptive Advisors, Cormorant Asset Management LP, ArrowMark Partners, Sphera Global Healthcare, Medison Ventures, Driehaus Capital Management and Ghost Tree Capital Group, LP, as well as additional US based healthcare focused funds. Existing investors also participated including Temasek, Baillie Gifford, RTW Investments, LP, Cowen Healthcare Investments and Agent Capital.

“We are thrilled to have such strong support from both new and existing investors in this financing round,” said Mark Rothera, president and CEO of Orchard. “The quality of this investor syndicate is a testament to the confidence we have built among our stakeholders, based on the substantial progress of Orchard’s clinical and preclinical programs since our Series B round last year.”

“This financing provides Orchard with additional capital to rapidly progress our most advanced clinical programs to commercialisation,” added Frank Thomas, CFO and chief business officer of Orchard. “We are advancing our pipeline of potentially transformative gene therapies in primary immune deficiencies and neurometabolic disorders to reach patients as quickly as possible.”

Monies raised in the financing round will be used to progress the company’s three most advanced clinical programmes: OTL-101 for adenosine deaminase severe combined immunodeficiency (ADA-SCID), OTL-200 for metachromatic leukodystrophy (MLD) and OTL-103 for Wiskott–Aldrich syndrome (WAS) towards registration and commercialisation. The funding will also support the clinical and preclinical development of the company’s rare disease gene therapy pipeline.

“Orchard has made an impressive transition from a start-up company to an emerging leader in gene therapy for rare diseases by building a comprehensive, industry-leading, portfolio of ex vivo gene therapies and assembling a highly experienced team,” commented Elise Wang, principal at Deerfield Management. “We are pleased to have led this round of financing. We believe the company has generated compelling clinical data on products which have the potential to become breakthrough treatments for patients.”