Oxford’s OMass Therapeutics announces new Board Chair as its Series B round hits £85.5m

By Sam Pither

16 May 2023

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Oxford-based biotechnology company OMass Therapeutics has announced Jim Geraghty as Chairman of its Board of Directors.

Along with Jim’s appointment, OMass announced an additional investment of £10 million from British Patient Capital in an extension of its Series B funding round, which brings the total raised in the investment round to £85.5 million.

OMass Therapeutics is a biotechnology company discovering medicines against highly- validated target ecosystems, such as membrane proteins or intracellular complexes. Since inception the company has raised more than £129 million in total.

BPC, a wholly owned commercial subsidiary of British Business Bank plc, the UK government’s economic development bank joins Syncona, Oxford Science Enterprises, GV, Northpond Ventures and Sanofi Ventures in the round. The additional £10 million investment is from BPC’s Future Fund: Breakthrough programme, a £375m programme which co-invests with private sector investors in innovative, R&D-intensive UK companies.

It will be used to support OMass as it continues to progress its pipeline of small molecule therapeutics for rare diseases and immunological conditions targeting solute carriers, complex-bound proteins and GPCRs.

Catherine Lewis La Torre, CEO, British Patient Capital said: “The UK continues to demonstrate its strength in life sciences with university spinouts like OMass leading the way. Scaling next-generation technology businesses, like OMass, by providing long-term capital for investment is why we established Future Fund: Breakthrough in 2021.

“We are delighted to be part of this latest funding round which will allow OMass to continue to build a strong pipeline of drugs with the potential to meaningfully improve patient outcomes.”

James (Jim) Geraghty also joins the board of directors to take on the role of independent Chair from Edward Hodgkin Ph.D., who has served as Chairman for nearly five years. Dr. Hodgkin will remain on the board as a Non-Executive Director representing major investor Syncona.

Boston-based Mr. Geraghty is an industry leader with over 35 years of strategic experience including more than 25 years as a senior executive at biotechnology companies developing and commercializing innovative therapies.

Jim Geraghty, Chairman of OMass Therapeutics said: “OMass is on a growth trajectory, and I am thrilled to join the board at this exciting time in its journey. OMass’ native mass spectrometry-based platform has great potential, and founder Carol Robinson and CEO Ros Deegan have done great work developing highly promising programs against validated but difficult to drug targets.

“I look forward to working together with the team and the rest of the board as the company transitions to a development stage company in the near future.”

Ros Deegan, CEO of OMass added: “I am delighted to welcome Jim to our board – his experience in helping to build Genzyme and subsequently with pharma, venture and biotech boards will be invaluable to OMass as we grow, and I look forward to his strategic counsel.

“I am also pleased to welcome the additional investment and support of British Patient Capital and the confidence this shows in our ambitious growth plans.”

By Sam Pither

Sam is the Regional Editor of Biz News, responsible for both Hampshire and Dorset.

A new recruit to journalism, Sam started writing for the Business Magazine as a freelancer in May of 2022 after completing his degree in English at University College London. His passion for local businesses and ability to tell a story soon caught the attention of the publication’s management team and have led to his meteoric rise.

Sam, who lives in central Reading, takes a particular interest in technology, gaming and food and drink, having been a chef before starting his degree.