OnQuality Raises $20 million in Extended Series A Round

(VCBeat) Apr. 12, 2021 -- OnQuality Pharmaceuticals LLC. ("OnQuality") today announced that it has recently closed a Series A+ funding round of $20 million. The new investors include Shiyu Capital, Sinovation Ventures, and additional individuals that join the existing group of Matrix Partners China, BioTrack Capital, CASH Capital, and FreeS Fund. StartPointAdvisors served as the exclusive financial adviser for this transaction.

OnQuality raised $35 million in Series A and A+ financing totally. The funds will be used to support the ongoing Phase II clinical trial of the company's leading compound OQL011, as well as multiple additional targeted cancer supportive care programs anticipated to enter different phases of clinical development over the next 18 months.

OnQuality also announced the appointment of pharmaceutical executive Michael McCullar, Ph.D., MBA, as its Chief Executive Officer. Dr. Michael McCullar has over 20 years of experience in mergers and acquisitions, partnerships, operations, strategy, and R&D in pharmaceuticals. As previous COO of Tolero Pharmaceuticals, Dr. Michael McCullar led and oversaw Tolero's acquisition by Sumitomo Dainippon Pharma for $780 million. Dr. Michael McCullar also once served as Senior Vice President of Astex, where he led the acquisition of Astex by Otsuka for $886 million. During this period, Dr. Michael McCullar completed a number of important collaborations and acquisitions, as well as the first approval of Dacogen for the treatment of myelodysplastic syndromes.

OnQuality is one of the few companies that focus on developing cancer supportive care therapies. In the company's pipeline, three projects address the high incidence of skin side effects, and three projects address the serious gastrointestinal side effects from common oncology drugs. The most advanced project in the pipeline has been advanced to phase II clinical trials in the United States. Several more projects will enter clinical trials in the next 18 months.

Shiyu Capital is a professional equity investment and asset management institution, focusing on equity investment in the pharmaceutical and healthcare industry, asset allocation and wealth management.

Sinovation Ventures is a leading Chinese technology venture capital, started in 2009 by a team led by Dr. Kai-Fu Lee, with presences in Beijing, Shanghai, Nanjing, Guangzhou, and Shenzhen. It currently manages over $2B AUM between seven USD and RMB funds in total, and over 350 portfolio companies across the technology spectrum in China. The company invests in start-ups at the seed, Series A, and Series B stages.