I. FINANCING OF PRIVATE BIOTECHNOLOGY COMPANIES: $92.0M | ||||
Company | Location |
Date | Amt. (M) |
Details |
Alimera Sciences Inc. |
Atlanta |
7/9/04 |
$26.75 |
Intersouth Partners led the Series A financing and was joined by BA Venture Partners, Domain Associates and Polaris Venture Partners; the firm was formed by former Novartis Ophthalmics executives |
Avidis SA (France) |
Clermont-Ferrand, France |
7/14/04 |
€1.5 |
Investing in the company was CHP, a venture capital fund also based in Clermont-Ferrand** |
Diffusion Pharmaceuticals |
Charlottesville, Va. |
7/28/04 |
$2.1 |
Details on the private equity round were not disclosed |
Inimex Pharmaceuticals Inc. |
Vancouver, British Columbia |
7/6/04 |
C$6 (US$4.5) |
Inimex completed the first closing of a Series A financing; investors included BDC Venture Capital, the Canadian Medical Discoveries Fund and GrowthWorks Capital |
NeurAxon Inc. |
Mississauga, Ontario |
7/21/04 |
C$2.5 |
Ventures West led the seed financing round, with participation from H.I.G. Ventures, NeuroVentures Fund and Genesys Capital Partners; the company was spun out of MCR Research |
Ruxton Pharmaceuticals Inc. |
Baltimore |
7/26/04 |
$5.2 |
Domain Associates, New Enterprise Associates and Aberdare Ventures co-led the Series A financing |
TheraQuest Biosciences LLC |
Blue Bell, Pa. |
7/22/04 |
$2.25 |
BioAdvance, the Biotechnology Greenhouse of Southeastern Pennsylvania and Ben Franklin Technology Partners of Southeastern Pennsylvania invested $500,000 and $250,000, respectively, joining the company founder and CEO in the seed round financing |
TransTech Pharma Inc. |
High Point, N.C. |
7/12/04 |
$10 |
TransTech closed on $10M of a $30M addition to its Series E financing round, the first part of which was $24.5M in February 2003; subsequent closings are scheduled later in 2004 and in 2005; investors included MacAndrews & Forbes Holdings and Novo Nordisk A/S |
Trubion Pharmaceuticals Inc. |
Seattle |
7/14/04 |
$32 |
The Series B financing was co-led by Prospect Venture Partners and Venrock Associates; Series A investors Arch Venture Partners, Frazier Healthcare Ventures, Oxford Bioscience Partners and ATP Capital also participated in the round |
Vitra Bioscience Inc. |
Mountain View, Calif. |
7/14/04 |
$5.5 | Alta Partners was lead investor in the Series B round, with participation from Sofinnova Ventures, Mediphase Venture Partners and Three Arch Partners |
II. MILESTONE PAYMENTS AND EQUITY INVESTMENTS FROM EXISTING CORPORATE PARTNERS: $8.7M | ||||
Company (Symbol)#* | Partner (Country) | Amt. (M) | Triggering Event | Details (Date) |
|
| ||||
Amylin Pharmaceuticals Inc. (AMLN) |
Eli Lilly and Co. |
$5 |
Milestone payment |
Triggered by completion of trial that showed similar glucose control and increased weight loss for exenatide vs. glargine in Type II diabetics (7/26) |
Celera Genomics Group (NYSE:CRA) |
Merck & Co. Inc. |
ND |
Milestone payment |
Triggered by Merck's advancement of a cathepsin K inhibitor into a Phase I trial as a potential treatment for osteoporosis (7/26) |
Crucell NV (the Netherlands; CRXL) |
DSM Biologics (the Netherlands) |
ND |
Milestone payment |
Triggered by a development milestone related to yields and performance in their collaboration on protein production (7/6) |
Europroteome AG* (Germany) |
Abbott Laboratories |
ND |
Milestone payment |
Triggered by reaching a project milestone in their collaboration to develop diagnostics for breast cancer (7/15) |
Ingenium Pharmaceuticals AG* (Germany) |
Bayer AG (Germany) |
ND |
Milestone achievement |
Reached by Ingenium's development of specific genetic mouse models for Bayer; it was not disclosed whether the milestone triggered a payment (7/27) |
Ligand Pharmaceuticals Inc. (LGND) |
TAP Pharmaceutical Products Inc. |
$1 |
Milestone payment |
Triggered by TAP's selection of an additional selective androgen receptor modulator as a clinical candidate for treatment of androgen-related diseases (7/9) |
The Speedel Group* (Switzerland) |
Novartis AG (Switzerland) |
ND |
Milestone payment |
Speedel got a milestone payment and equity investment related to Novartis' development of the oral renin inhibitor Aliskiren (SPP 100), which it recently moved into Phase III trials forhypertension (7/13) |
Vertex Pharmaceuticals Inc. (VRTX) |
GlaxoSmithKline plc (UK) |
$1.5 |
Milestone payment |
Triggered by European approval of Telzir, an HIV protease inhibitor co-discovered by the companies (7/16) |
Vical Inc. (VICL) |
Gencell SAS (subsidiary of Aventis SA; France) |
$1.2 |
Milestone payment |
Triggered by progress at Gencell in developing fibroblast growth factor-1 for cardio- vascular diseases using Vical's DNA delivery technology, as covered in their June 2000 deal (7/26) |
Notes: | ||||
# Unless otherwise indicated, shares are traded on the Nasdaq exchange. | ||||
* Private company; ** Denotes the date the item ran in BioWorld International. | ||||
Currencies conversions are based on exchange rates at the time of the deal. | ||||
ND = Not disclosed. | ||||
NYSE = New York Stock Exchange. | ||||
