Spring Mountain Capital leads financing round for Oncoceutics with additional private investors' participation

Spring Mountain Capital, LP, a New York-based investment management firm, announced today that its private equity group structured and led a financing round for Oncoceutics, Inc. with additional private investors' participation. The private placement was substantially oversubscribed.

Oncoceutics will use the proceeds of the financing in conjunction with non-dilutive grant awards, public-private partnerships and academic alliances to accelerate the early clinical development (Phase I and Phase II) of its lead product, ONC201. The Company has a robust program of Phase I/II protocols for ONC201 that will enroll more than 150 patients with leukemia, lymphoma and solid tumors and that will be conducted at leading cancer centers in the US. Oncoceutics is also preparing additional clinical studies in Europe. Given the promise of the compound and its first-in-class structure, the Company has also launched a dedicated program on analogs for certain indications that is substantially supported by a previously announced SBIR grant.

"We believe that Oncoceutics' lead compound ONC201 has the breakthrough potential to change medical practice in oncology," said Raymond Wong, Managing Director and Head of Private Equity at SMC, who is joining the Company's Board of Directors. "Oncoceutics' management team has a proven track record of successfully developing new oncology drugs. Their expertise, resources and network of preeminent leaders in oncology has them poised to deliver to patients in need," Wong added.

"The closing of this funding round represents an important endorsement of our development strategy," said Wolfgang Oster, MD, PhD, Chief Executive Officer of Oncoceutics. "Combined with a series of recent validations by academic, government, and other private institutions that believe in the transformative potential of ONC201, the new funding positions Oncoceutics to conduct an aggressive R&D program over the next two years," he added.

"We have studied ONC201 extensively at our institution and reached the conclusion that this compound is orthogonal to any oncology drug that has entered the market so far," said Michael Andreeff, MD, PhD, Chief, Section of Molecular Hematology and Therapy and Haas Chair in Genetics at MD Anderson Cancer Center and member of Oncoceutics' Scientific Advisory Board. "We are excited to participate in the clinical assessment of this novel drug," Dr. Andreeff stated.

"It has been a thrill to see the rapid entry into the clinic of the first-in-class ONC201 therapeutic that targets signaling pathways critical for broad and effective tumor treatment," said Wafik El-Deiry, MD, PhD, FACP, the Scientific Founder of Oncoceutics. "This is very rare to see for technologies arising in academia, and is in no uncertain terms due to the superb senior executive, business and managerial leadership of Oncoceutics that have collectively done an amazing job of making this happen in a competitive climate with numerous regulatory and financial hurdles. As a physician-scientist, it is exciting for me to be part of the basic and translational development of a new therapeutic for cancer." Dr. El-Deiry is presently the Chief of the Hematology-Oncology Division at Penn State University and Penn State College of Medicine, and Associate Director for Translational Research at Penn state Hershey Cancer Institute.

SOURCE Spring Mountain Capital, LP