In its Series D financing, Cambridge, Mass.-based NeoGenesis Inc. raised $23 million.

NeoGenesis, an applied genomics and drug discovery company, will use the money for working capital, daily operations and paying off debt, said Nanette Collins, company spokeswoman. The company has raised $34 million since its inception in 1997.

Lead investors were OrbiMed Advisors LLC, of New York; Ft. Washington Private Equity Investors Inc., of Cincinnati; Essex Street Associates and Valentine Partners. Michael Sheffery, a managing general partner at OribMed, will join the NeoGenesis board.

"In our opinion, OriMed is the premier institutional investor in biotechnology companies," Allen Michels, NeoGenesis chairman and CEO, said in a prepared statement. "We are deeply impressed with its insights, knowledge of, and contacts within the health care industry. We are both pleased and fortunate to have it as part of our team as we expand our research and development operations and increase our pharmaceutical industry collaborations."

NeoGenesis has developed a chemical genomics strategy that uses drug-like, small-molecule ligands very early in the discovery process to determine the biological utility and drugability of poorly characterized, disease-associated proteins. Chemical genomics simultaneously analyzes the role of a protein in a disease process and the ability of a small-molecule ligand to modulate its biological function.

- Kim Coghill