Orchard Therapeutics raise US-$150m

In April, Orchard expanded its portfolio of gene therapies against primary immune deficiencies and inherited metabolic disorders with GlaxoSmithKline’s portfolio of approved and investigational rare disease gene therapies giving the pharma major a 19.9% stake in Orchard Therapeutics. Now the company announced it will use the proceeds to advance three gene therapy candidates, two thereof from the former GSK portfolio, towards registration: its proprietary programme OTL-101, an autologous ex vivo lentiviral gene therapy for ADA-SCID, which will be submitted to the FDA this year and to the EMA next year. Furthermore, Orchard seeks to submit registrational dossiers for OTL-200 one of two treatments for metachromatic leukodystrophy (MLD) acquired from GSK to the EMA next year and for OTL-103, an autologous lentiviral ex-vivo therapy  for Wiskott–Aldrich syndrome (WAS) by 2021 for European and US approval. One EMA-approved gene therapy, Strimvelis for ADA-SCID, has not yet been approved by the FDA but has been granted FDA pediatric disease designation as the other three assets giving them a voucher option for Priority Review.

The Series C financing was led by Deerfield Management. New investors included 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 U.S. based healthcare focused funds and existing investors including Temasek, Baillie Gifford, RTW Investments, LP, Cowen Healthcare Investments and Agent Capital.

According to Frank Thomas, CFO and CBO of Orchard, the series C-“financing provides Orchardwith additional capital to rapidly progress our most advanced clinical programs to commercialization. We are advancing our pipeline of potentially transformative gene therapies in primary immune deficiencies and neurometabolic disorders to reach patients as quickly as possible.” The company’s commercialization plans  triggered IPO rumours, which were not commented by Orchard