NEW YORK – Outpace Bio on Thursday said it has raised $144 million in an oversubscribed Series B funding round.
The financing was led by RA Capital Management, with participation from new investors Qatar Investment Authority, Surveyor Capital, Sheatree Capital, Black Opal Ventures, Alexandria Venture Investments, and other undisclosed investors. The firm's existing investors ARTIS Ventures, Playground Global, Bristol Myers Squibb, Abstract Ventures, Civilization Ventures, Mubadala Capital, Breton Capital Ventures, WRF Capital, and Sahsen Ventures also participated in the Series B round. Concurrent with the funding, Jake Simson, partner at RA Capital Management, joined Outpace's board of directors.
Seattle-based Outpace will use the funds to advance its pipeline of engineered T-cell therapy candidates. The firm is developing its lead candidate, the mesothelin-directed autologous CAR T-cell therapy OPB-101, as an ovarian cancer treatment. Outpace said it is on track to receive US Food and Drug Administration clearance for its investigational new drug (IND) application seeking permission to begin testing OPB-101 in patients with advanced platinum-resistant epithelial ovarian, fallopian tube, or primary peritoneal cancer. The firm expects to begin treating patients with OPB-101 in a clinical trial in 2025.
The company will also use the raised funds to advance other pipeline products using its artificial intelligence-powered protein design platform that it says can address the challenges of developing cell therapies for solid tumors. The firm has a modular set of tools to help engineered immune cells function better inside the patient.
"Existing cell therapies have fallen short in treating solid tumors, offering limited and transient responses," Simson said in a statement. "We are proud to support Outpace's revolutionary approach to cell therapy, leveraging their unique AI-driven protein design capabilities to solve the multiple obstacles preventing durable responses, with unmatched speed and success rates."