Venture Capital And Corporate Investments In Biotechnology Companies: February 2000
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. |