CG Oncology raises $120m through Series E round

The financing round was co-led by ORI Capital, Longitude Capital and Decheng Capital.

It has also seen participation from RA Capital Management, Acorn Bioventures, Malin Corporation, Ally Bridge Group and Sirona Capital.

So far, CG Oncology secured a total funding of more than $200m.

In relation with the financing, Longitude Capital principal Brian Liu will join CG Oncology’s board of directors.

Besides advancing the lead clinical programmes in bladder cancer towards FDA approval, the proceeds from the Series E round will broaden the scope of its pipeline to address unmet medical requirements in urologic cancer, such as the first-line setting in Bacillus Calmette-Guérin (BCG)-naïve, intermediate-risk non-muscle invasive bladder cancer (NMIBC) patients.

CG Oncology CEO Arthur Kuan said: “We are delighted by the support from leading global investors to help us accomplish our mission of developing innovative therapeutics for patients suffering from urologic cancers.

“Our continued clinical progress in bladder cancer is a testament to our lead candidate CG0070 in both monotherapy and combination therapy studies, setting the stage to further expand development across additional urologic oncology indications.”

CG0070, an intravesically delivered oncolytic immunotherapy agent is in a Phase 3 trial (BOND3) to treat BCG-unresponsive non-muscle invasive bladder cancer (NMIBC).

Furthermore, CG0070 is also being studied in a Phase 2 trial in combination with KEYTRUDA (pembrolizumab) in the same indication.

CG Oncology has a clinical tie-up with Merck (known as MSD outside the US and Canada) to analyse the combination of CG0070 with pembrolizumab in CORE1.

Interim Phase 2 data for CORE1 showed both strong anti-tumour activity and tolerability of CG0070 in combination with pembrolizumab for patients with BCG-unresponsive NMIBC.

ORI Capital founder and senior partner Simone Song said: “We have strong conviction in CG Oncology which continues to generate compelling data to develop potential bladder-sparing innovative therapeutics for patients suffering from bladder cancer.

“We’ve been strong supporters of the CG Oncology team from an early stage by leading the Series C round, and we are particularly proud to co-lead this round with Longitude Capital and Decheng Capital, as we see tremendous potential for CG0070 to be a game changer for patients with NMIBC.”

CG0070 has been given to more than 200 patients for the treatment of bladder cancer.

This investigational therapy has shown potential best-in-class efficacy and safety in monotherapy besides strong response rates in combination with checkpoint inhibitors.