Staff Writer
Genetic tools-focused OriGene Technologies Inc. plans to use the $16 million gained in a Series B financing on the growing TrueMAB collection, which the company intends will cover about 20,000 genes - the entire human genome.
The Rockville, Md.-based firm, using real human full-length proteins in manufacturing, has been working for a decade on the project already, and said its process has proven to yield antibodies much better than the traditional small peptide generated monoclonal and polyclonal antibodies, especially for use in flow cytometry and multiplex ELISA assays.
Already OriGene has antibodies ready and available for partners. Earlier this week, the firm made news by inking an alliance with Essen Instruments Inc., of Ann Arbor, Mich., to co-develop ion channel cell lines to be co-marketed by the firms, but no terms were disclosed.
Just over a year ago, OriGene raised $6.5 million in a private equity financing to finish buying out privately held Shenzhen P&A Biotech for its monoclonal antibody-making capacity.
IDG-Accel, SBI & TH Venture Capital Enterprise and Zero2IPO led the Series B, with OriGene's previous investors Morningside Venture Investments and President International Development Corp. also taking part.
In other financing news:
• AVEO Pharmaceuticals Inc., of Cambridge, Mass., completed its initial public offering of 9 million shares at $9 each, for aggregate net proceeds of about $72.58 million, after deducting underwriting discounts and commissions and estimated offering expenses. AVEO has granted the underwriters a 30-day option to purchase up to an additional 1.35 million shares to cover over-allotments, if any. The stock (NASDAQ:AVEO) closed Thursday at $8.81.
• NeoStem Inc., of New York, said principal shareholder RimAsia Capital Partners LP exercised its warrant to purchase 1 million shares, issued in a September 2008 private placement, at a price of $1.75 each for gross proceeds of about $1.75 million. Funds are expected to support various initiatives, including assisting in the funding of the relocation of the manufacturing facility of Suzhou Erye Pharmaceutical Co. Ltd., NeoStem's 51 percent-owned subsidiary.
• Prolor Biotech Inc., of Nes-Ziona, Israel, raised $24.4 million in a private placement of about 10.3 million shares of common stock with a par value of $0.00001 per share, to accredited investors at a price of $2.35 per share, which represents an approximate 17 percent discount to the average closing price of the common stock for the 30-day period prior to closing. The shares have not been registered and no registration rights have been granted to investors for these shares, which are subject to a one-year lockup agreement.
• Theravance Inc., of South San Francisco, intends to offer, subject to market and other conditions, 7.5 million shares of its common stock in an underwritten registered public offering with underwriters given a 30-day over-allotment option to purchase on the same terms and conditions up to about 1.1 million more shares of common stock.