I. FINANCING OF PRIVATE BIOTECHNOLOGY COMPANIES: $277.74M | ||||
Company | Location | Date | Amt. (M) | Details |
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Aton Pharma | Tarrytown, N.Y. | 1/8 | $48.7 | Aton Pharma completed its Series A round raising $48.7M total, following the close of a third tranche for $13.7M; investors were Perseus-Soros Biopharmaceutical Fund, The Wellcome Trust and various previous investors |
Biolipox AB | Stockholm, | 1/15 | €21 | Biolipox raised US$21M in a second round of financing led by funds advised by Apax Partners; other investors were HealthCap, Sofinnova Partners, Credit Lyonnais Private Equity and Auriga Partners |
Biotica | Cambridge, UK | 1/6 | $5 | Biotica raised $5M in a Series A round led by Bio- technology Value Fund; Nordic Biotech also invested |
Celator | Vancouver, B.C., | 1/24 | $6.8 | Celator raised $6.8M in a first round of financing led by Ventures West and Growthworks; Business Development Bank of Canada also participated |
Emerald Bio- | Lansing, Mich. | 1/28 | $6.2 | Emerald BioAgriculture raised $6.2M from a group led by Burrill & Co. and A.M. Pappas and Associates |
GB | Kingston, Ontario | 1/9 | $4.5 | GB Therapeutics completed a $4.5M debenture round led by VenGrowth Capital Partners and University Medical Discovery Investments |
Genospectra | Fremont, Calif. | 1/9 | $8 | Genospectra raised $8M in a Series B round |
Iomai Corp. | Gaithersburg, Md. | 1/3 | $54 | Iomai raised $54M through the issuance of Series C preferred stock in a round co-led by New Enterprise Associates and Essex Woodlands Health Ventures |
Nanosphere | Northbrook, Ill. | 1/6 | $5 | Nanosphere raised an additional $5M in a third- round financing, bringing the total to $15M; investors were Lurie Investments, NextGen Partners LLC and Takara Bio Inc. |
Novactyl | St. Louis | 1/9 | ND | Novactyl completed a private financing of its Series A convertible preferred stock; existing shareholders and new investors participated in the financing |
Perlegen | Mountain View, | 1/27 | $30 | Perlegen raised $30M in a Series B round led by Maverick Capital; other investors were Eli Lilly and Co., Biofrontier Partners, CSK Venture Capital, Vulcan Ventures, BioMedical Sciences Investment Fund, CMEA Ventures, SB Life Science Ventures, the individual Alejandro Zaffaroni, and others |
Procognia | London | 1/16 | $4 | Procognia raised $4M from existing shareholders Apax Partners, Evergreen Partners and Vitalife |
Raven Biotech- | South | 1/3 | $40 | Raven raised $40M in a Series C round led by Bear Stearns Health Innoventures LP; other in- vestors were Pequot Ventures, GE's Life Science and Technology Finance Group, Singapore's BioMedical Sciences Investment Fund Pte. Ltd., Integra Ventures, U.S. Venture Partners, CMEA Ventures, Hambrecht & Quist Capital Management LLC and Milepost Ventures |
Ribopharma | Kulmbach, | 1/29** | €2 (US$2.17) | Ribopharma raised US$2.17M through a convertible loan from Abingworth Management Ltd. |
Senexis | London | 1/15** | £1.4 (US$2.24) | Senexis raised US$2.24M in its first round; investors were BTG plc, Catalyst BioMedica Ltd. and Wellcome Trust |
Sophion | Copenhagen, | 1/29 | ND | Sophion closed its second round of financing |
Southampton Polypeptides | Southampton, | 1/22** | £0.3 (US$0.48) | Southampton Polypeptides raised US$484,000 in a seed investment |
The Genetics | Schlieren, | 1/29** | CHF5 (US$3.7) | The Genetics Company raised US$3.7M in a round that included Nextech Venture and Novartis Venture Fund |
TolerRx Inc. | Cambridge, Mass. | 1/3 | $35 | TolerRx raised $35M in a Series C round led by Skyline Ventures; other investors were HealthCare Ventures, Rho Ventures and Vertex Management; new investors were Sprout Group, Artal Services, Genentech Inc., Lehman Brothers Healthcare Fund, Yasuda Enterprise Development, Mizuho Capital, Azora Investment and Duke University |
ViaLogy | Pasadena, Calif. | 1/8 | $0.95 | ViaLogy raised an additional $950,000 in its first round begun last year; the company now has raised a total of $3.95M; BioProjects International plc increased its equity interest in the company |
II. MILESTONE PAYMENTS AND EQUITY INVESTMENTS FROM EXISTING CORPORATE PARTNERS: $33.95M |
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Company | Partner (Country) | Amt. (M) | Triggering Event | Details (Date) |
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Allon | The Institute for the | ND | Investment | Allon received an investment from the institute; the company is focused on developing neuroprotective therapies (1/29) |
Aptus Pharma- | Fujisawa Investments for Entrepreneurship LP (unit of Fujisawa Pharmaceutical Co. Ltd.; Japan) | ND | Investment | Aptus received an undisclosed investment from Fujisawa (1/30) |
Cell Genesys | Transkaryotic | $15 | Investment | TKT invested $15M in Cell Genesys as part of their agreement for a license to Cell Genesys' intellectual property related to its gene activation technology for certain therapeutic proteins (1/22) |
Coley Pharma- | Aventis Pharma | ND | Milestone payment | Coley received a milestone payment stemming from the development of CpG 7279 (1/21) |
CombiMatrix | Hoffmann- | $8.5 | Milestone payment | CombiMatrix received $8.5M for completion of product development milestones, the expansion of its alliance and related product delivery (1/9) |
DeCode | Roche Diagnostics | ND | Milestone payments | DeCode received the payments for identifying specific variations within a single gene that confer significant increased risk of osteoporosis (1/9) |
Elitra Pharma- | Merck & Co. | ND | Milestone payment | Elitra received the first milestone payment under its research collaboration resulting from its delivery and the acceptance of an undisclosed number of high-throughput screening assays (1/21) |
Eos Biotech- | Aventis Pasteur | ND | Milestone payment | Eos received a milestone payment when Aventis exercised its option to develop up to five targets discovered by Eos (1/13) |
Evotec OAI | Vertex | ND | Milestone payment | Evotec received a milestone payment when a drug candidate advanced into clinical testing as part of its drug discovery chemistry services agreement (1/16) |
Genmab A/S | F. Hoffmann- | ND | Milestone payments | Genmab received a milestone payment when a human antibody it generated effectively reached proof of concept in an animal disease model (1/9) |
GPC Biotech | Altana Pharma | $2.45 | Milestone payments | GPC achieved milestones using its Reverse Genomics technology in its antimicrobial alliance with Altana, triggering the payments (1/8) |
Ligand Pharma- | GlaxoSmithKline | $2 | Milestone payment | Ligand earned the $2M milestone payment for beginning human trials of SB-497115 (1/7) |
Micap plc* | SkyePharma | £2 (US$3.2) | Investment | SkyePharma invested US$3.2M in Micap, a specialist in microencapsulation technology (1/22**) |
Protein | Genencor | ND | Milestone payment | Protein Polymer received a milestone payment under a worldwide exclusive license agreement for its protein polymer design and production technology for industrial and personal care product applications (1/7) |
Rigel Pharma- | Daichi | ND | Milestone payment | Rigel received the milestone payment in conjunction with its partnership with Daichi to develop a new type of oncology drug (1/7) |
SciClone | Sigma-Tau SpA | $1.8 | Investment | Sigma-Tau purchased 505,000 shares of SciClone's stock for $1.8M (1/23) |
Unigene | GlaxoSmithKline | $1 | Milestone payment | Unigene received a $1M milestone payment following the performance demonstrated by Unigene's oral parathyroid hormone formulation in animal studies (1/27) |
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Notes: |
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# Unless otherwise indicated, shares are traded on the Nasdaq exchange. |
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* Denotes privately held company. |
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** Denotes the date the item ran in BioWorld International. |
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ND = Not disclosed. |
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CSE = Copenhagen Stock Exchange; FSE = Frankfurt Stock Exchange; OTC BB = Over-the-Counter Bulletin Board |