On April 21, 2022, Octant, a next-generation, data-driven therapeutics company developing programmable biology and chemistry to build precision medicines for complex diseases, announced an $80 million Series B financing round that was led by Catalio Capital Management and included participation from Bristol Myers Squibb and existing investors Andreessen Horowitz Bio Fund, Allen & Co., and Fifty Years. Octant also announced it has established a Deep Mutational Scanning (DMS) biopharma partnership with Bristol Myers Squibb, and has appointed biotech industry veteran Dean “Rick” Artis as its first chief scientific officer and renowned scientist Feng Zhang to its scientific advisory board. Wilson Sonsini has advised Octant since its inception and represented Octant in the transactions.

Proceeds from the Series B round will be used to further expand Octant’s platform capabilities and pipeline, advance its proprietary drug discovery technology, and generate extensive datasets that map the relationships between drug candidates, genetics, and the biochemical mechanisms of human cells. Octant also plans to develop multiple additional therapeutic programs in small molecule chaperone therapies for rare genetic diseases.

The Wilson Sonsini team that represented Octant in the transactions included:

Corporate
Rezwan Pavri
Lester Ang
Richa Sharma

Patents and Innovations
Matt Wheeler
Dalton Case
Matthew Bresnahan

Technology Transactions – Bio
Ian Edvalson

For more information, please see Octant's press release.