ALEXANDRIA, Va. & SEATTLE--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Oxford Finance LLC (“Oxford”), a leading specialty finance firm that provides senior debt to life sciences and healthcare services companies worldwide, is announcing the closing of a $50 million senior secured term loan with OncoResponse (“the Company”), a clinical-stage biotech company advancing immunotherapies derived from the immune systems of elite cancer responders.
Proceeds from the transaction will be used for general working capital and to support clinical testing of the Company’s lead drug OR2805, which is currently in clinical development.
“Our priority is to advance the clinical studies of our lead drug candidate, OR2805, across multiple tumor types. We will also use this capital to support our drug pipeline and leverage our proprietary platform to discover important new treatments for cancer. We are pleased to have this support from Oxford, in addition to that from our strong investor syndicate, to support these efforts,” said Chris Russell, chief financial officer of OncoResponse.
OncoResponse is leveraging its proprietary human antibody platform to discover novel targets and identify fully human monoclonal antibodies as therapeutics for the treatment of cancer patients. The platform allows for the rapid screening of tens of thousands of antibodies made by the human immune system to identify immuno-modulatory antibodies.
“OncoResponse is led by an experienced management team that has a track record of successfully developing platform technologies and clinical-stage therapeutics,” said Christopher A. Herr, senior managing director at Oxford. “Oxford is pleased to be a capital provider to OncoResponse and back its unique and compelling pipeline focused on reversing and relieving immunosuppression in the tumor microenvironment leading to better responses and more cures for cancer patients worldwide.”
About Oxford Finance LLC
Oxford Finance is a specialty finance firm providing senior secured loans to public and private life sciences and healthcare services companies worldwide. For over 20 years, Oxford has delivered flexible financing solutions to its clients, enabling these companies to maximize their equity by leveraging their assets. Since 2002, Oxford has originated approximately $8.8 billion in loans. Oxford is headquartered in Alexandria, Virginia, with additional offices in California (San Diego, Palo Alto, and Los Angeles), and the greater Boston and New York City metropolitan areas. For more information, visit https://oxfordfinance.com.
About OncoResponse
OncoResponse is a clinical-stage, immuno-oncology biotech company developing cancer immunotherapies using clues from the immune systems of elite cancer responders. In a broad strategic alliance with MD Anderson Cancer Center, OncoResponse deploys a proprietary B-cell discovery platform to identify and develop novel therapeutics targeting the tumor microenvironment. The company's lead candidate, OR2805, is a fully human antibody discovered from the immune repertoire of an elite responder to checkpoint inhibitor (CPI) therapy, which has entered clinical studies. Additional pipeline candidates that modulate suppressive macrophage activity are under development and are advancing toward the clinic. OncoResponse is a privately held company backed by investment from MD Anderson Cancer Center, Rivervest Venture Partners, Qatar Investment Authority, Redmile Group, Magnetar Group, Yonjin Venture, InterVest, Bering Capital, ARCH Venture Partners, Helsinn Investment Fund, Canaan Partners, GreatPoint Ventures, Takeda Ventures, Buchang Pharma, Alexandria Real Estate Equities and William Marsh Rice University. For more information please visit www.oncoresponse.com and follow us on LinkedIn and Twitter.
