OxSonics Therapeutics due diligence report.

Hatchworks has conducted due diligence on OxSonics Therapeutics, a private healthcare company founded in 2013, that develops and manages ground-breaking advancements in the field of therapeutic ultrasound, invented at the University of Oxford’s Institute of Biomedical. One of those early stage developments is a platform technology called the ‘’SonoTran’’.

Headquartered in Oxford, UK, OxSonics “SonoTran” drug delivery platform has the capability to overcome one of the greatest challenges facing solid tumour cancer therapy by delivering drugs throughout tumours, including to the areas that lie furthest from blood vessels. SonoTran can be applied to any cancer drug whether that is an antibody, an oncolytic virus, a chemotherapeutic agent or other small molecule. Also, it’s worth noting that one shortcoming of many cancer drugs is their limited ability to reach deep into solid tumours. SonoTran, which works by literally pushing the drug molecules deeper into the tumour.

Usually only 1% of cancer medicine gets to where it’s needed. Oxford scientists at OxSonics, use ultrasound to pump the drug right to the heart of a tumour. Treatment takes 30 minutes and it should be more effective and accurate. A major key benefit of OxSonics’ technology is the ability to provide real-time on-screen feedback also known as ‘’see-as-you-treat’’ to the clinician as to where and when the drug has been successfully delivered.

So far, SonoTran has raised $17M and they’re currently seeking investments in the region of $15–20M through a Series B round. OxSonics plans to do an IPO in 2023–2024 and expects to be listed on the NASDAQ.

Recent highlights:

• From over 2,500 companies OxSonics Therapeutics has been judged the ultimate winner of the European-wide Healthtech 2019 Tech Tour Contest Final.
• A patent protecting its SonoTran Particles has been issued in the US and is likely to soon be granted in Japan and China also.
• OxSonics Therapeutics are currently in ‘’active discussions’’ with several top pharma companies.

It’s worth noting that OxSonics plan to start the clinical stage in Q3 2020, so it’s still too early to establish any likely outcome.

According to our analysis, OxSonics technology looks interesting. However, whilst they may be in several active discussions with top pharma companies, they haven’t actually closed a deal with yet, making it therefore a higher than average investment risk. Also, it doesn’t show any financial statements and the outcome of the clinical stage is still uncertain. Consequently, Hatchworks sees no reason to become bullish at this stage.

What is OxSonics?

OxSonics develops a drug delivery platform called ‘’SonoTran’’ that has the capability to overcome one of the greatest challenges facing solid tumour cancer therapy by delivering drugs throughout tumours, including to the areas that lie furthest from blood vessels. OxSonics mission is to provide economic and scalable life-changing treatments to solid tumour cancer patients.

Investors:

• Longwall Venture Partners.
• Winton Ventures.
• Oxford Technology Innovation EIS Fund.
• University of Oxford.
• Perivoli Innovations.

Advisors and Bookrunners:

• Longwall Venture Partners.

What are the risks?

• OxSonics planned to start the clinical stage in Q3 2020. However, clinical trials are expensive and time consuming, may take longer than they expect or may not be completed at all, and their outcome could be uncertain.
• OxSonics may be changed or increased regulatory restrictions.
• New competitive therapies could negatively impact OxSonics sales and business model.

Competitors:

• Surefire Medical.
• Merck.
• Seattle Genetics.

Management team:

• Colin Story: CEO.
• Constantin Coussios Freng: CSO & Co-Founder.
• Christian Coviello: Engineering Director & Co-Founder.

The Hatchwork Team

Legal Disclaimer — This report summary has been generated as a result of Hatchworks’ proprietary company vetting and filtering system. The level of due diligence conducted on investible assets conducted ranges from mediocre to significant, the latter being the case where Hatchworks has explicitly taken strategic positions in. By no means is the information in this file to be relied on as investment advice; this includes Hatchworks’ algorithmic composite score known as ‘Hatchscore’. Hatchworks has not received any compensation for this research. For more information you can reach us at info@hatchworksvc.com. This report is not for distribution in the United States of America. It is closed to U.S citizens. If you are a U.S. citizen, you should delete this report or return to sender.