Menu

Ossium Health: Streamlining Stem Cell Therapies

A robust stem cell therapeutics pipeline powered by a massive bone marrow donor bank

Written by

Alumni Ventures

Published on

Alumni Ventures portfolio company Ossium Health is well-positioned to develop a leading solution in the global stem cell therapy market, projected to reach $31.4 billion by 2030. Powered by the world’s largest bone marrow donor bank, Ossium is leveraging an unprecedented amount of data on stem cell behavior and characteristics to develop therapies for blood, immune, and inflammatory diseases.

Unlocking the Potential of Stem Cell Therapies

The next great biotech solution might have been discovered over 60 years ago. Since the first successful bone marrow grafts in 1958, scientists have identified the significant potential of stem cells to treat a wide array of diseases by replacing damaged cells and regenerating organs.

Stem cell research has been stymied by both technical limitations and social friction over the use of embryonic cells. There are roughly 22,000 stem cell transplants in the U.S. each year, addressing only a fraction of the more than 80+ cancers, blood diseases, and other disorders that could be treated by stem cells.

Ossium Health: The Promise of Bone Marrow Banking

Listen to a presentation from Ossium Health CEO Kevin Caldwell at the Cell & Gene Meeting on the Mesa. He argues that the true potential of stem cell therapies hasn’t been realized due to limitations with sourcing and explains how Ossium is leveraging the vast, untapped organ donor ecosystem to radically improve bone marrow transplants.

See video policy below.

Unrivaled Access to Donor Bone Marrow

Ossium’ strategy to develop advanced stem cell therapies is driven by extensive access to donor bone marrow. According to Ossium, the company has secured exclusive access to 47% of the bone marrow from deceased donors in the U.S., with a path to reach 85% by 2026.

Ossium has used its donor bank to address constraints of stem cell therapies across all stages of the supply chain. The company’s IP covers high-quality cell recovery from deceased donors, cryogenic preservation, high-yield thaw, and ultimately, directed use across multiple diseases.

Ossium has seven therapies at various stages of the FDA’s drug development process, including:

  • Blood Cancer: Phase 3 clinical trial
  • Inflammation: Phase 1 clinical trials (irritable bowel syndrome and asthma)
  • Organ Transplants: Phase 1 clinical trials
  • Home

    Streamlined Drug Discovery

    New drugs typically reach commercialization after 10 to 15 years and hundreds of millions of dollars spent on R&D, clinical trials, and FDA approval.* With seven therapies in its pipeline, Ossium expects to bring its first drug to market as early as 2024. Meanwhile, Ossium has unlocked recurring revenue with research grants and sales of its stem cells and orthopedic byproducts to hospitals.
  • Home

    Commanding Market Position

    Ossium reports that it has exclusive access to nearly half of the deceased donor bone marrow in the U.S. The company is also partnering with BeTheMatch, the country’s largest donor-matching platform.
  • Home

    Expert Team & Investors

    Ossium was co-founded by CEO Kevin Caldwell (former McKinsey biotech consultant) and Chief Science Officer Erik Woods (a leading cryobiologist). The team has attracted capital from several Midas List VCs, including Bill Trenchard (First Round Capital) and Hemant Taneja (General Catalyst). Ossium’s Series B lead, Vivo Capital, is an established healthcare investor with nearly 80 exits.**

How We’re Involved

Spike Ventures (for the Stanford community) sponsored our investment in Ossium’s $52 million Series C led by CPMG, with participation from First Round Capital, Manta Ray Ventures, Asahi Kasei, and Vivo Capital. Other Alumni Ventures funds that invested in the round include Congress Avenue Ventures (for the University of Texas community) and Nassau Street Ventures (for the Princeton community), as well as AV’s Deep Tech Fund and Total Access Fund.

Want to learn more?
View all our available funds and secure data rooms, or schedule an intro call.

New to AV?
Sign up and access exclusive venture content.

Contact [email protected] for additional information. To see additional risk factors and investment considerations, visit av-funds.com/disclosures.

*Peter Corr and David Williams, “The Pathway from Idea to Regulatory Approval: Examples for Drug Development,” National Library of Medicine, 2009

**Vivo Capital, “Portfolio,” Accessed September 8, 2023

Written by

Alumni Ventures

Alumni Ventures is a network-powered VC firm that helps accredited individuals invest in venture capital.

LinkedIn
Twitter
Facebook
Tagged with

Follow us

Follow us

Neither Alumni Ventures nor any of its funds are sponsored by, affiliated with, or otherwise endorsed by any university. For further details see our Legal & Privacy Policy.

Video Policy: By consuming this content I acknowledge that I may be considering an investment with AV funds for my own or my client’s account. I agree that information contained herein may not be relied upon or used for any other purpose. Offers to purchase securities are only made through formal offering documents, which describe risks (which are significant), terms, and other important information that must be considered before an investment decision is made. To see Important Disclosure Information, visit: https://av-funds.com/disclosures.

Testimonial/Endorsement Policy: Testimonials/Endorsements were provided by the participants without compensation, but each participant has a relationship with Alumni Ventures (AV) from which they benefit. All views expressed are the individual’s own and do not represent the experience of all AV fund investors or companies in which AV funds invest. Please note that testimonials are no guarantee of future performance or success. Any provider of an endorsement that is affiliated with a portfolio company Alumni Ventures has received investment funding from AV, and may in the future seek and/or receive additional funding from AV. This circumstance constitutes a conflict of interest. Providers of testimonials or endorsements were not chosen at random or according to any objective basis, but rather on the basis of their relationship with AV.

Investor Portal Update Policy: Investor portfolio data is updated once per quarter in the AV Investor Portal.

Alumni Ventures is America’s largest VC firm for individual investors based on the combination of total capital raised, number of investments, and number of investors of leading VC firms as reported by Pitchbook and other publicly available information reviewed by AV.

(1) Internal Rate of Return (IRR) for AV Funds is net of management fees and incentive allocations applied to amounts distributed to investors, and gross of incentive allocations applicable to unrealized gains on investments held by AV Funds. IRR for AV Funds includes uninvested cash, unrealized investments, and amounts distributed to investors. The IRR shown for the Russell 2000 indices are gross of fees because indices are not managed investments, and it is not possible to invest directly in an index. For additional information see av-funds.com/disclosures. All investment involves risk, including risk of loss. Past performance is not necessarily indicative of future results. For more information on AV Funds’ investment returns, please see here.

Not an offer to sell, or a solicitation of an offer to purchase, any security. Such offers are only made pursuant to the formal offering documents for the fund, that describe the risks (which are significant), terms, and other important information that must be considered before an investment decision is made.
To see additional risk factors and investment considerations, visit: https://av-funds.com/disclosures.

Please click here to view additional investor policies.

© 2024, Alumni Ventures. All rights reserved.