I. FINANCING OF PRIVATE BIOTECHNOLOGY COMPANIES: $108.0M | ||||
Company | Location |
Date | Amt. (M) |
Details |
Cythera Inc. | San Diego |
2/3 |
$2 |
Cythera raised $2M in initial round of venture financing from Sanderling, Alta Partners and Graystone Venture Direct Equity |
Deltagen Inc. |
Menlo Park, Calif. |
2/1 | $22.5 | Deltagen raised $22.5M in round led by Boston Millennia Partners and including investments from The Sprout Group, Baccharis Capital, Crossroads and Lombard Odier & Cie |
Digital Gene Technologies Inc. | La Jolla, Calif. | 2/10 |
$22 |
Digital Gene raised $22M in an oversubscribed, self-managed equity placement that attracted both new and previous investors |
DoubleTwist Inc. (formerly Pangea Systems Inc.) |
Oakland, Calif. |
2/23 |
$37 |
DoubleTwist raised $37M in a Series D equity financing; MPM Asset Management led the financing, which also included new investors T. Rowe Price, INVESCO Global Health Sciences Fund, Lone Pine Capital LLC and Amerindo Investment Advisors; previous investors who participated included Institutional Venture Partners, Mayfield Fund, Kleiner Perkins Caulfield & Byers, MDS Capital, Boston Millennia Partners, Burrill & Company, Moss Forest Ventures, and Levensohn Capital Management |
GeneFormatics Inc. |
San Diego |
2/12 |
$4 |
GeneFormatics raised $4M in financing led by Burrill & Company's AgBio Capital Fund; IngleWood Ventures co-invested and participants included Moss Forest Ventures |
Genometrix Inc. |
The Woodlands, Texas | 2/8 |
ND |
Genometrix completed a private placement that attracted previous investors Motorola Inc. (NYSE:MOT), New Renaissance Ventures, and Fayes Sarofim & Co. |
Merix Bioscience Inc. | Research Triangle Park, N.C. | 1/31 |
$1.9 |
Senmed Medical Ventures and other co-investors invested $1.9M, with an option to invest an additional $5M to $10M in in the next round based on the accomplishment of various milestones |
Octagen Corp. | Bala Cynwid, Pa. |
$4.5 |
Octagen closed a 2nd-round $4.5M financing; Bal Cap Biotech LP, an affiliate of Balanced Capital, was the lead investor | |
Phytera Inc. |
Worcester, Mass. |
2/3 |
$9.1 |
Phytera raised $9.1M in a private equity financing that attracted new and existing investors in Europe, Asia and the U.S.; Index Securities, of Geneva, and SG Cowen Securities Corp. acted as placement agents |
Spherics Inc. | Providence, R.I. |
2/17 | $4 |
Spherics raised $4M in 1st-round financing; Zero Stage Capital, of Cambridge, led the financing, with a $3.25M investment; CB Health Ventures, of Boston, also participated |
VistaGen Inc. | Mountain View, Calif. |
2/16 | $1 | VistaGen raised $1M in a private placement |
NOTE: | ||||
@ Dates refer to the date of the press release. | ||||
II. MILESTONE PAYMENTS AND EQUITY INVESTMENTS FROM EXISTING CORPORATE PARTNERS: $13.5M | ||||
Company (Symbol)# |
Partner (Symbol; Country) | Amt. (M) |
Triggering Event |
Details (Date) |
Aquila Biopharmaceuticals Inc. (AQLA) |
Progenics Pharmaceuticals Inc. (PGNX) and Bristol-Myers Squibb Co. (NYSE:BMY) |
ND | ND |
Aquila received a milestone payment in connection with use of its Stimulon adjuvant QS-21 in a cancer vaccine program (2/14) |
Aquila Biopharmaceuticals Inc. (AQLA) |
Neuralab Ltd. (wholly owned subsidiary of Elan Corp. plc [Ireland; NYSE:ELN]) | ND | ND | Aquila received a milestone payment in connection with the use of its Stimulon adjuvant QS-21 with an undisclosed antigen in the field of Alzheimer's disease (2/14) |
Aviron (AVIR) |
Wyeth Lederle Vaccines (business unit of Wyeth-Ayerst Laboratories, the pharmaceutical division of American Home Products Corp. [NYSE:AHP]) | $2 |
Equity investment |
Wyeth purchased 0.103M shares of Aviron common stock at $19.36 per share for an aggregate of $2M (2/3) |
BioCryst Pharmaceuticals Inc. (BCRX) |
R.W. Johnson Pharmaceutical Research Institute (subsidiary of Johnson & Johnson [NYSE:JNJ]) |
$4 | Initiation of clinical trial | BioCryst received a $4M milestone payment under 9/98 agreement for the initiation of Phase III clinical trials of RWJ-27021 (BCX-1812), an oral influenza neuraminidase inhibitor, in North America and Europe (2/8) |
Cell Genesys Inc. (CEGE) |
Aventis Pharmaceuticals (pharmaceutical arm of Aventis S.A. [NYSE:AVE]) |
$2 |
Licensing anniversary | Cell Genesys received $2M payment in connection with anniversary of 1997 licensing agreement for gene activation technology for gene-activated erythropoietin and a second undisclosed protein (2/2) |
Cytoclonal Pharmaceutics Inc. (CYPH) |
Bristol-Myers Squibb Co. (NYSE:BMY) |
ND | ND |
Cytoclonal received an undisclosed payment under 1998 agreement to develop paclitaxel production methods using fermentation and genetic engineering (2/23) |
Genzyme Molecular Oncology (GZMO) |
Separate agreements with Schering-Plough Corp. (NYSE:SGP) and Warner-Lambert Co. (NYSE:WLA) | $3 | Clinical trial advance and licensing |
Genzyme Molecular received a total of $3M through a milestone payment from Schering-Plough, which advanced a p53 tumor supressor gene in ovarian cancer trials, and renewal of a licensing fee from Warner-Lambert for access to Genzyme Molecular's SAGE (Serial Analysis of Gene Expression) database (2/7) |
Neurocrine Biosciences Inc. (NBIX) |
Wyeth-Ayerst Laboratories (pharmaceutical division of American Home Products Corp. [NYSE:AHP]) |
$1.5 |
Target validation and small-molecule discovery |
Neurocrine received $1.5M for moving 3/99 collaboration forward in small-molecule identification and target validation for two separate targets (1/31) |
Paradigm Genetics Inc.* |
Bayer AG (Germany) | ND | Delivery of assay and bioinformatics system |
Paradigm received undisclosed milestone payment for delivery of an assay for high-throughput screening and of release 1.1 of a customized Function-Finder bioinformatics system for discovery of herbicide targets (2/23) |
Unigene Laboratories Inc. (OTC BB:UGNE) | Warner-Lambert Co. (NYSE:WLA) |
$1 | Clinical supplies testing | Unigene completed testing of clinical supplies of oral calcitonin that will be used by Warner-Lambert in an upcoming Phase I/II trial (2/25) |
NOTES: | ||||
# Unless otherwise indicated, shares are traded on the Nasdaq exchange. | ||||
* Denotes privately held company. | ||||
@ Dates refer to the date of the press release. | ||||
