Syn­thet­ic bi­ol­o­gy biotech nets three-hit com­bo in new fi­nanc­ing, Bris­tol My­ers deal and first CSO

A Bay Area biotech an­nounced three new de­vel­op­ments that have been in the works in re­cent months, hop­ing that all have a strong chance at pro­pelling the com­pa­ny for­ward.

The first and newest de­vel­op­ment is the fi­nanc­ing, as Oc­tant — head­ed up by for­mer UCLA pro­fes­sor Sri Ko­suri and found­ed in 2017 — raised $80 mil­lion in a Se­ries B round. It’s the biotech’s largest round to date, and more than dou­bles all its past fundrais­ing com­bined, bring­ing its to­tal fi­nanc­ing so far to $115 mil­lion. Ko­suri told End­points News that the fund­ing gives Oc­tant, which cur­rent­ly has around 50 em­ploy­ees, a cash run­way of two to three years.

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