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British Patient Capital Invests £10m in next generation drug development company OMass Therapeutics

Press release 12 July 2023

British Patient Capital has made a £10 million investment into OMass Therapeutics, a platform therapeutic company that discovers and develops novel small molecule medicines in areas of high, unmet clinical need, to help advance its pipeline towards human trials.

The investment is part of OMass’ Series B extension, bringing the total raise to £85m. The round was led by GV, Sanofi Ventures and Northpond Ventures, with existing investors Syncona and Oxford Science Enterprises also participating.

It is the ninth life sciences investment made through British Patient Capital’s Future Fund: Breakthrough, a £375m programme which co-invests with private sector investors in innovative, R&D-intensive UK companies.

Originally spun out of Oxford University, OMass has commercialised Professor Dame Carol Robinson’s breakthrough research in native mass spectrometry to develop its proprietary drug discovery platform, OdyssION™. Unlike other drug discovery methods, OMass’ platform allows for highly validated but inadequately drugged targets to be viewed in their natural state.

The company has a strong pipeline of small molecule drugs with an initial focus on immunology and rare diseases. This financing will support OMass’ advance towards clinical development while also enabling the expansion of its pipeline.

The UK continues to demonstrate its strength in life sciences with university spinouts like OMass leading the way. Scaling next-generation technology businesses, like OMass, by providing long-term capital for investment is why we established Future Fund: Breakthrough in 2021. We are delighted to be part of this latest funding round which will allow OMass to continue to build a strong pipeline of drugs with the potential to meaningfully improve patient outcomes.

Catherine Lewis La Torre CEO, British Patient Capital

I am pleased to welcome the additional investment and support of British Patient Capital and the confidence this shows in our ambitious growth plans.

Ros Deegan CEO, OMass

Further Information

Notes to editors

About British Patient Capital

British Patient Capital Limited is a wholly owned commercial subsidiary of British Business Bank plc, the UK government’s economic development bank. Its mission is to enable long-term investment in innovative firms led by ambitious entrepreneurs who want to build large-scale businesses. Launched in June 2018, British Patient Capital has more than £3bn of assets under management, investing in venture and venture growth capital to support high growth potential innovative UK businesses in accessing the long-term financing they require to scale up. Find out more about British Patient Capital.

British Business Bank plc and its subsidiary entities are not banking institutions and do not operate as such. They are not authorised or regulated by the Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA) or the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA). A complete legal structure chart for British Business Bank plc and its subsidiaries can be found on the British Business Bank plc website.

British Patient Capital makes commitments and invests on its own behalf and on behalf of third-party investors whose investments British Patient Capital manages.

The transaction described above does not constitute or imply any endorsement, warranty or recommendation by the UK government, the British Business Bank plc, its subsidiaries or any other party in respect of OMass Therapeutics.

About OMass Therapeutics

OMass Therapeutics is a biotechnology company discovering medicines against highly-validated target ecosystems, such as membrane proteins or intracellular complexes. The company’s unique OdyssION™ technology platform comprises novel biochemistry techniques, next-generation native mass spectrometry, and custom chemistry. This allows OMass to interrogate not just the target, but also the interaction of the target with its native ecosystem, separate from the confounding complexity of the cell. The result is cell-system fidelity with cell-free precision. OMass is advancing a pipeline of small molecule therapeutics in rare diseases and immunological conditions, therapeutics that target solute carriers, complex-bound proteins, and GPCRs.

Headquartered in Oxford, UK, OMass has raised over $150M (£119M) from a top-tier international investor syndicate, including Syncona, Oxford Science Enterprises, GV, Northpond Ventures, Sanofi Ventures and British Patient Capital.

To learn more, please visit omass.com. Follow us on LinkedIn and Twitter.

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