EXCLUSIVE: Ocean Biomedical Bags $134M Backing For Innovative Research and IND Fillings

Ocean Biomedical, Inc OCEA shared updates on crucial company activities with Benzinga on Monday. 

What Happened? Ocean has partnered with some of the premier investment institutions in the healthcare space leading to a secure and growing runway with funding including a $59 million committed backstop by Vellar Opportunity Fund SPV LLC – Series 3, a stock purchase agreement with White Lion Capital LLC of up to $75 million bringing total current investment to $134 million, and $123.9 million in past and ongoing grants.

Why Does It Matter? Dr. Chirinjeev Kathuria, Chairman and co-founder of Ocean Biomedical, stated, "This financing will provide Ocean Biomedical with a stronger capital position, enabling us to move forward quickly towards IND filings and potentially deliver important solutions to end suffering and save hundreds of thousands of lives."

Ocean announced the discovery of a second major anti-tumor pathway and therapeutic approach that targets CTLA-4, inhibiting the metastasis of malignant melanoma cells to the lung using a novel bispecific antibody approach.

Ocean acknowledged the previously announced discovery of bispecific antibodies that target Chitinase 3-like-1 and immune checkpoint inhibitors, killing glioblastoma cells and melanoma cells and blocking the metastasis of malignant melanoma cells to the lung by over 90%.

Scientific Co-founder and member of the board of directors Dr. Jonathan Kurtis, MD PhD, won a new patent for his discovery related to malaria, a third parasite target called PfCDPK-5 that can potentially help to interdict the parasite at multiple stages in the malaria cycle.

Scientific Co-founder and member of the board of directors Dr. Jonathan Kurtis, MD, PhD, received a Notice of Allowance from the United States Patent and Trademark Office ("USPTO") for his U.S. patent application covering a therapeutic and prophylactic monoclonal antibody that kills falciparum malaria parasites.

In Oncology, the Ocean team has uncovered CHI3L1, a novel target and pathway discovery, the master checkpoint inhibitor.

For Pulmonary Fibrosis, Ocean has identified a novel target and pathway discovery called Chitinase 1 (Chit1) and a potential inhibitor of this pathway called OCF-203. 

For Infectious Disease / Malaria, Ocean's proprietary platform for infectious diseases has yielded promising vaccine and therapeutic candidates for malaria, including the discovery of PfSEA-1 and PfGARP. 

Price Action: OCEA shares traded higher by 1.36% at $6.69 premarket on the last check Monday.