Orca Bio Announces $250M in Aggregate Financing in Preparation for Potential Commercialization

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MENLO PARK, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Jan 9, 2026--

Orca Bio, a late-stage biotechnology company committed to transforming the lives of patients through high-precision cell therapy, today announced the completion of a Series F financing round in December 2025 led by Lightspeed Venture Partners. With $250M in new equity capital from its two most recent financing rounds, along with a 2025 amendment to its Silicon Valley Bank credit facility providing up to $100M in additional liquidity, Orca Bio possesses the financial strength to scale its commercial operations and advance its clinical pipeline.

The proceeds will be used to ensure commercial readiness as the company approaches the April 6, 2026 Prescription Drug User Fee Act (PDUFA) target action date for Orca-T, Orca Bio’s lead investigational allogeneic T-cell immunotherapy. The funding will help strengthen the company’s infrastructure to support future commercial scale, including the addition of East Coast manufacturing capacity to complement its Sacramento, CA operations. The capital will also support the accelerated advancement of Orca Bio’s pipeline across multiple clinical programs designed to expand treatment to more patients in need.

“Our financial position is a powerful validation of Orca-T's transformative potential and reflects our commitment to pioneering a new standard in cell therapy,” said Nate Fernhoff, Ph.D., co-founder and chief executive officer at Orca Bio. “With the resources and infrastructure now in place, we are uniquely positioned to bring our first high-precision therapy to leukemia patients in the U.S. This milestone not only solidifies our anticipated commercial launch but also provides the runway to advance our promising pipeline as we seek to redefine treatment across multiple life-threatening blood cancer and autoimmune diseases.”

In parallel to commercialization efforts, Orca Bio remains focused on advancing its pipeline of high-precision cell therapies. The company progressed two clinical programs designed to evaluate Orca-T and Orca-Q in both the reduced intensity conditioning (RIC) and nonmyeloablative (NMA) settings for patients who may not be candidates to receive a traditional myeloablative conditioning (MAC) regimen.

“While myeloablative conditioning offers the best chance to eradicate disease with a traditional allogeneic stem cell transplant, the high toxicity levels carry significant risks, particularly for older patients or those with co-morbidities,” said Scott McClellan, M.D., Ph.D., chief medical officer at Orca Bio. “Less intensive conditioning regimens are safer for patients who are not candidates for myeloablative conditioning. Through these new studies, we aim to evaluate if Orca-T and Orca-Q can bring safer, curative interventions to a broader population of blood cancer patients.”

• SERENE-T Phase 2 Study: SERENE-T (NCT07216443) is a new multicenter, open-label Phase 2 trial evaluating the safety, tolerability and efficacy of Orca-T in patients with acute myeloid leukemia (AML) or myelodysplastic syndromes (MDS) undergoing RIC or NMA.
• Expanded Phase 1b Study of Orca-Q: The first patients have been treated in the expanded Phase 1b study (NCT03802695​) which now includes three additional cohorts of patients receiving RIC or NMA with either matched related or unrelated, 7/8 mismatched unrelated or haploidentical related donors. Orca-Q is Orca Bio’s second-generation investigational allogeneic T-cell immunotherapy for patients with AML, MDS or mixed phenotype acute leukemia (MPAL).

Both studies are now enrolling with plans to open at additional centers across the U.S. For more information, visit ClinicalTrials.gov.

About Orca Bio

Orca Bio is a late-stage biotechnology company developing high-precision cell therapies for the treatment of blood cancer and autoimmune diseases. The company’s manufacturing platform uses single-cell precision to create personalized cell therapy products intended to replace a patient’s diseased blood and immune system with a healthy one. At Orca Bio, we are on a mission to redefine what’s possible for patients by transforming the field of curative allogeneic cell therapy. For more information, visit www.orcabio.com.

Trademarks or registered trademarks used in this press release are the property of their respective owners.

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KEYWORD: UNITED STATES NORTH AMERICA CALIFORNIA

INDUSTRY KEYWORD: ONCOLOGY HEALTH STEM CELLS GENERAL HEALTH PHARMACEUTICAL BIOTECHNOLOGY

SOURCE: Orca Bio

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PUB: 01/09/2026 08:00 AM/DISC: 01/09/2026 08:00 AM

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