I. FINANCING OF PRIVATE BIOTECHNOLOGY COMPANIES: $247.25M |
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Company | Location | Date | Amt. (M) | Details |
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Aegera Therapeutics Inc. | Montreal | 3/4 | C$17 (US$10.7) | Aegera raised US$10.7M in a private round co-led by Genechem Therapeutics Venture Fund LP and the Solidarity Fund; other investors were the Business Development Bank of Canada, Investissement Desjardins, Capital regional et cooperatif Desjardins, T2C2/Bio 2000 LP, CDP Sofinov, Innovatech Grand Montreal, Canadian Medical Discovery Fund, Neuroscience Partners LP, Working Ventures Canadian Fund Inc. and MedTech Partners |
Agensys Inc. | Santa Monica, Calif. | 3/5 | $42.8 | Agensys raised $42.8M in a private round led by Bear Stearns Health Innoventures, OrbiMed Advisors and Alta Partners; other investors were HBM Partners AG, Hambrecht & Quist Capital Management, Carnegie Kapitalforvaltning AB, BSI AG and ReqMed Company Ltd.; JP Morgan H&Q acted as the exclusive placement agent and financial adviser |
Akceli Inc. | Cambridge, Mass. | 3/18 | $6.5 | Company completed its Series A financing round of $6.5M; Atlas Ventures led the financing, with Apple Tree Partners also contributing |
AlgoRx Pharmaceuticals Inc. | Cranbury, N.J. | 3/18 | $25 | AlgoRx secured a commitment of $25M from three U.S. venture capital firms |
AM-Pharma BV | Amsterdam, the Netherlands | 3/6** | EUR2.2 (US$1.9) | AM-Pharma raised US$1.9M in its second financing round led by ABN-Amro Capital; it was backed by existing investors, including BioPartner Start-up Ventures and private investors |
ARC Pharmaceuticals Inc. | Vancouver, British Columbia | 3/26 | $0.55 | ARC raised $550,000 in a private financing; investors included company founders, employees and a group of private investors |
BioXell | Milan, Italy | 3/26 | EUR22 (US$19.3) | BioXell, a spin-out of F. Hoffmann-La Roche Ltd., raised US$19.3M through an investment by MPM Capital LP, Hoffmann-La Roche, Index Ventures and Life Sciences Partners |
Galapagos Genomics NV | Mechelen, Belgium | 3/5 | EUR21.4 (US$18.6) | Company completed a US$18.6M private placement co-led by Abingworth Management, Apax Partners and Burrill & Company; other investors were NIB Capital and Crucell Holland BV |
Gentris Corp. | Research Triangle Park, N.C. | 3/19 | $1.5 | Gentris raised $1.5M in a financing with institutional and angel investors |
Memory Pharmaceuticals Corp. | Montvale, N.J. | 3/25 | $40 | Memory raised $40M in a private financing led by Biomedicine LP; other investors were Yamanouchi Venture Capital, Mitsubishi Corp., Mitsubishi International Corp., SG Cowen Ventures, Bioveda Capital, Yasuda Enterprise Development Corp., Oxford Bioscience Partners, Venrock Associates, OrbiMed Advisors, Alta Partners, S.R. One Ltd., Healthcare Ventures, GIMV, Medica Venture Partners, The Invus Group, Global Life Science Ltd. Partnership and Rho Ventures; Bear, Stearns & Co. served as placement agent |
Molecular SkinCare Ltd. | Sheffield, UK | 3/25 | $1.7 | Molecular SkinCare, which was spunout from the University of Sheffield, raised about $1.7M after completing its first round of funding; Sitka HealthCare VCT plc invested in the round |
NeuroMed Technologies Inc. | Vancouver, British Columbia | 3/26 | C$8.6 (US$5.4) | NeuroMed closed a second tranche financing of US$5.4M; investors included GrowthWorks Capital, MDS Capital, RBC Capital Partners, Trian Equities, Business Development Bank of Canada, Pictet & Cie, Kinetic Capital, and private individual investors |
OctoPlus NV | Leiden, the Netherlands | 3/13** | EUR5.7 (US$5) | OctoPlus raised US$5M in its first financing round |
PhageTech Inc. | Montreal | 3/14 | C$16 (US$10) | PhageTech raised US$10M in a third round of financing led by CDP Capital - Technology Ventures; other investors were Seaflower Ventures, T2C2/Bio, Solidarity Fund QFL, MDS Capital and GeneChem (3/14) |
Phenomix | San Diego | 3/12 | $12 | Phenomix raised $12M in its first round co-led by Sofinnova Ventures and Alta Partners; other investors were Bay City Capital LLC, CM Capital Investments, CMEA Ventures, Novartis Bioventure Fund, Rothschild Bioscience Managers Ltd. and Versant Ventures, among others |
PhytoProtein Biotech Pte. Ltd. (subsidiary of Agenix Ltd.; Australia) | Singapore | 3/15 | ND | PhytoProtein received funding through a private placement of shares; Commerce Technology Ventures Sdn Bhd now owns 12.2% of PhytoProtein, having bought an undisclosed number of shares at SGD$12.04 per share |
Senomyx Inc. | La Jolla, Calif. | 3/12 | $36.8 | Senomyx completed a $36.8M private placement of Series E preferred stock; the financing was co-led by Rho Ventures LP and Merrill Lynch Ventures LP 2001; other investors were Bay City Capital LLC, Domain Associates LLC, Prospect Venture Partners LP, Hambrecht & Quist Capital Management Inc., OrbiMed Advisors LLC and Excelsior Venture Partners III LLC |
Thermogenic Imaging Inc. | Billerica, Mass. | 3/1 | $6.5 | Thermogenic Imaging raised $6.5M following its spinout from GlaxoSmithKline plc and FLIR Systems Inc. |
ViaLogy Corp. | Pasadena, Calif. | 3/22 | $3 | ViaLogy secured $3M in its first round of equity financing from BioProjects International plc |
II. MILESTONE PAYMENTS AND EQUITY INVESTMENTS FROM EXISTING CORPORATE PARTNERS: $9.5M |
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Company (Symbol)#* | Partner (Country) | Amt. (M) | Triggering Event | Details (Date) |
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Astex Technology Ltd. (UK)* | AstraZeneca plc (UK) | ND | Milestone payment | Astex received a milestone payment as part of a structural biology research agreement focused on solving human cytochrome P450 crystal structures (3/25) |
Coley Pharmaceutical Group Inc.* | Aventis Pharma AG (Germany) | $2 | Milestone payment | Coley earned the milestone for the expansion of a collaboration to include a drug discovery program to screen and evaluate second-generation immunomodulatory CpG product candidates for the treatment of asthma and allergic rhinitis (3/13) |
Evotec OAI AG (Germany)* | Byk Gulden Lomberg Chemische Fabrik GmbH (Germany) | ND | Milestone payment | Evotec received an undisclosed payment as part of its agreement with Byk covering an assay development program (3/27**) |
ID Biomedical Corp. (Canada; IDBE) | Takara Biomedical Group (subsidiary of Takara Shuzo Co. Ltd.; Japan) | $2.5 | Milestone payment | ID Biomedical received the payment after Takara successfully developed a nucleic acid test incorporating ID's Cycling Probe technology (3/26) |
Inspire Pharmaceuticals Inc. (ISPH) | Allergan Inc. | ND | Milestone payment | Inspire achieved a milestone under its agreement with Allergan for INS365 Ophthalmic for dry eye syndrome (3/29) |
Nastech Pharmaceutical Co. Inc. (NSTK) | Pharmacia Corp. | $5 | Investment | Nastech received a $5M investment in exchange for 250,000 shares of Nastech stock, as part of the companies' $56M agreement for nasally administered apomorphine for the treatment of male and female sexual dysfunction (3/18) |
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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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