OMass Therapeutics, a University of Oxford spinout built on native mass spectrometry drug discovery, has raised $310 million in an oversubscribed Series C, the company announced on October 15. The round was co led by new investors Bain Capital Life Sciences, Forbion and Novo Holdings, joined by Janus Henderson Investors, SV Health Investors and Jefferson Life Sciences, with every existing investor participating, including Syncona, Oxford Science Enterprises, GV, Northpond Ventures, Sanofi Ventures, the British Business Bank and the University of Oxford. Total funding since founding is now about $475 million. Syncona disclosed it committed $10.1 million and that its holding is valued at 56.0 million pounds for a 16.1 percent stake once the round is fully drawn.
The money is pointed at one program first. OMS1620 is an oral antagonist of the melanocortin 2 receptor, designed to stay bound to the receptor longer than rivals so it keeps working when natural ACTH levels surge. The company will fund it through Phase 2 development in congenital adrenal hyperplasia, a genetic disorder in which patients cannot make enough cortisol and typically need lifelong, often above physiologic, glucocorticoid doses that carry serious long term harm, and in ACTH dependent Cushing syndrome. Blocking ACTH at the adrenal gland is meant to control excess androgen production while letting patients take lower steroid doses. The balance of the round funds early clinical data for an SLC15A4 inhibitor aimed at lupus and other interferon driven diseases.
The competitive frame is explicit in the company’s own positioning. Neurocrine and Vertex, the latter via its Crinetics acquisition, are the incumbents OMass is chasing in adrenal disorders, a market where a validated pathway and a large acquirer price have already been established this year. A $310 million private round, the second largest in European biotech in 2026 after Isomorphic’s $2.1 billion Series B, gives OMass the option to reach Phase 2 data without an IPO or a sale. Whether the receptor residency claim differentiates in patients is the question the round is paying to answer.