ORIC Pharmaceuticals raises $53m to advance prostate cancer drug development

Investors in the Series B financing round include the Column Group, Topspin Partners, OrbiMed Advisors, EcoR1 Capital, Foresite Capital and Kravis Investment Partners.

ORIC will use the financing to advance first drug candidate targeting androgen receptor-resistant prostate cancer into clinical studies and expand its pipeline.

ORIC chief scientific officer Valeria Fantin said: "Treatment-resistant cancer is an area of tremendous unmet clinical need.

"We are confident that the internal and external expertise we have cultivated – in addition to the systematic scientific approach we are employing – will enable ORIC to unlock key mechanisms of resistance and develop next-generation therapies that transform cancer treatment."

ORIC was founded by two oncology experts, Charles Sawyers and Scott Lowe, who are on the faculty at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center.

Lowe identified BRD4 as a therapeutic target in acute myeloid leukemia, with drugs for the target presently in clinical trials.

ORIC is working with its co-founders and advisors to understand tumor resistance mechanisms at the molecular level.

The company will replicate the processes using laboratory-based models to find actionable drug targets with a development pathway.

ORIC’s initial focus will be on drugs targeting resistance mechanisms associated with androgen receptor therapies in advanced prostate cancer.