Orum Therapeutics Raises $30 Million Antibody Technology to Hit “Undruggable” Targets

Orum Therapeutics said it completed a $30 million series B financing to help advance its antibody platform technology that targets “undruggable” proteins to deliver therapeutic payloads to treat cancers and rare diseases.

New investors in the round included IMM Investment, Smilegate Investment, KTB Network, and Stassets Investment. They joined existing investors InterVest and KB Investment/Solidus Investment in the financing.

The company also plans to use the proceeds to expand its R&D labs in Korea and Boston.

“A large number of important therapeutic targets are currently considered ‘undruggable,’ making drug discovery for these targets technically challenging,” said Sung Joo Lee, founder and CEO of Orum Therapeutics. “By intracellular delivery of antibodies, our platform redefines what undruggable means.”

Using its platform, Orum creates antibodies that bind cell-specific receptors and are internalized through receptor-mediated endocytosis, a process which allows substances to enter the cell and pass into the intracellular fluid known as the cytosol. Once in the cytosol, the antibodies can be therapeutically active and directly target disease-causing proteins or deliver payloads.

Among the therapeutic avenues Orum is exploring is to use this approach to deliver oligonucleotides or enzymes to treat rare diseases.

“Orum’s cell-penetrating antibody platform is unique in that it has the capacity to not only transform the landscape of druggable targets,” said Peter Park, chief scientific officer of Orum Therapeutics, “but also overcome the limitation of cytosolic delivery of other therapeutic modalities.”

Photo: Sung Joo Lee, founder and CEO of Orum Therapeutics

Author: Rare Daily Staff