PrintLife sciences companies, led by U.K biotech Circassia, raised $363 million in venture financing during the third week of April. Circassia’s $98 million financing is the second largest fundraising by a private European biopharmaceutical company this year, and the third largest in more than 15 years. The funding, which will be in two tranches over the next two years, was led by Imperial Innovations with participation by Invesco Perpetual and other existing investors. It brings the total capital raised by the company to $159 million in four rounds since its founding in 2006.
Circassia develops T-cell vaccines based on its proprietary technology to combat allergies and plans to use the new investment to fund late stage development of its cat and ragweed allergy therapies, and completion of mid-stage testing of its house dust mite and grass allergy T-cell vaccines, plus advancing three additional programs.
In the United States, San Diego-based Sangart closed a $50 million series G financing round from existing investors led by Leucadia National. It brings to $230 million the total raised by the company since its inception in 1998. The new financing also includes warrants which, if exercised, could provide up to an additional $50 million in future funding.
Sangart will use the money to advance the development of its two lead products: MP4OX to treat severe traumatic hemorrhage; and MP4CO to treat sickle cell disease. Sangart has refined the pegylation of human hemoglobin to create a molecule with the ability to carry oxygen or carbon monoxide through the circulatory system to prevent and treat stroke and to stabilize the hemoglobin of sickle cell disease patients.
Santa Clara, California-based Benvenue Medical raised $35.5 million in a series C financing round to further development of its minimally invasive solutions for spine repair. The round was co-led by new investors Domain Associates and Technology Partners, with participation from current investors Versant Ventures and DeNovo Ventures. Benvenue will use the proceeds to complete development and commercialization of its device to treat vertebral compression fractures and degenerative disc disease, a $9 billion global market.
Cambridge, Massachusetts-based bluebird bio, a biotech developing innovative gene therapies for severe genetic disorders, added $30 million to its coffers from new investor ARCH Venture Partners, with support from existing investors Third Rock Ventures, TVM Capital, Forbion Capital Partners and Easton Capital Investment Group. This funding comes on top of a $35 million series B financing completed in early 2010.
Bluebird bio’s approach to developing treatments for diseases with few or no clinical options uses stem cells harvested from the patient’s bone marrow into which a healthy version of the disease causing gene is inserted. After being grown in culture, those cells are given back to the patient. The company has two later stage clinical products in development for childhood cerebral adrenoleukodystrophy and beta-thalassemia/sickle cell anemia.
Berkeley, California-based Aduro Biotech closed a $19.25 million series B venture financing from current investors and Morningside Ventures, a diversified investment group based in Hong Kong that focuses on funding early stage innovative technologies. The funding will be used to advance the company’s lead cancer vaccine into a mid-stage clinical trial in pancreatic cancer, as well as preclinical development of other therapeutic and prophylactic vaccines.
The week also saw the IPO of Sagent Pharmaceuticals, a specialty pharma focused on generic injectable products that are used by hospitals, clinics, and other healthcare service providers. The company priced its initial offering of 5.8 million shares at $16 per share, at the top of its target range, to raise $92 million. It began trading on April 20 on the Nasdaq Global Market under they symbol “SGNT.”
DEALS FOR THE WEEK ENDING APRIL 22, 2011
| Global Venture Financings | |||
| Company | Location | Amount Raised (USD M) | Principal Activity |
| Sangart | San Diego, CA | 50.0 | Hematology |
| Benvenue Medical | Santa Clara, CA | 35.5 | Spine repair |
| bluebird bio | Cambridge, MA | 30.0 | Gene/cell therapy |
| Humedica | Boston, MA | 20.0 | Clinical informatics |
| Aduro BioTech | Berkeley, CA | 19.3 | Immunotherapy |
| CoDa Therapeutics | San Diego, CA | 19.0 | Tissue repair |
| Tracon Pharmaceuticals | San Diego, CA | 14.0 | Cancer drugs |
| AngioScore | Fremont, CA | 12.0 | Endovascular devices |
| Rotation Medical | St Paul, MN | 10.0 | Soft tissue repair |
| Silk Road Medical | Sunnyvale, CA | 8.2 | Neurovascular devices |
| Mersana Therapeutics | Cambridge, MA | 6.0 | Cancer drugs |
| KellBenx | New York, NY | 2.5 | Prenatal diagnostics |
| Tarsa Therapeutics | Philadelphia, PA | 1.5 | Musculoskeletal |
| MEDomics | Azusa, CA | N/A | Diagnostics |
| Carmell Therapeutics | Pittsburgh, PA | N/A | Biomaterials |
| Circassia Limited | Oxford, United Kingdom | 98.0 | Allergy vaccines |
| Unimark Remedies | Mumbai, India | 33.3 | Biomanufactuirng |
| Cellectricon | Gothenberg, Sweden | 3.0 | Tools/Technology |
| Baylis Medical | Canada | 0.2 | Medical devices |
| Total Raised US | 228.0 | ||
| Total Raised Non-US | 134.5 | ||
| Grants and Contracts | |||
| Company | Funding Agency | Amount Raised (USD M) | Principal Activity |
| Grants | |||
| Ichor Medical Systems | DoD Phase 1 SBIR | N/A | Transdermal drug delivery |
| AE Biofuels | California Energy Commission | 1.9 | Cellulosic biofuels |
| Contracts | |||
| Bavarian Nordic | HHS BARDA 2009 contract increase | 54.0 | Smallpox vaccine |
| Trius Therapeutics | DOE National Nuclear Security Administration | 3.0 | Antibiotics |
| Total Grants and Contracts | 58.9 | ||
| Public Financings | |||
| Company | Ticker | Amount Raised (USD M) |
Financing Type |
| Sagent Pharmaceuticals | SGNT | 92.0 | IPO |
| Synta Pharmaceuticals | SNTA | 35.2 | PIPE |
| Cytokinetics | CYTK | 20.0 | PIPE |
| Ampio Pharmaceuticals | OTC:AMPE | 12.7 | PIPE |
| NanoViricides | OTC:NNVC | 5.0 | PIPE |
| ARCA biopharma | ABIO | 3.0 | PIPE |
| Microbix Biosystems (Canada) | TSX:MBX | 0.6 | PIPE |
| Critical Outcome Technologies (Canada) | TSX-V:COT | 0.4 | PIPE |
| RXi Pharmaceuticals | RXII | 12.0 | Follow on |
| AB Science | Euronext:AB | 10.9 | Convertible bond financing |
| BioPorto Diagnostics | CSE:BIOPOR | 0.2 | Warrant exercise |
| Total Public Financings-US | 179.9 | ||
| Total Public Financings-Non-US | 12.1 | ||
| M&A | |||
| Acquirer | Target | Deal Value (USD M) |
Focus |
| Baxter International | Prism Pharmaceuticals | 338.0 | Specialty pharma |
| SciClone Pharmaceuticals | NovaMed Pharmaceuticals (China) | 105.0 | Specialty pharma |
| Intrexon | Neugenesis | N/A | Synthetic biology |
| Nano Terra | Surface Logix | N/A | Chemistry |
| Alliances | |||
| Company/Licenser | Company/Licensee | Deal Value (USD M) |
Focus |
| Active Biotech (Sweden) | Ipsen (France) | 291.0 | Cancer therapeutics partnership |
| 4SC (Germany) | Yakult Honsha (Japan) | 192.3 | Cancer therapeutics license |
| Med BioGene (Canada) | Precision Therapeutics | 3.5 | Diagnostics license |
| Standard Chemical and Pharmaceutical (Taiwan) | DIA Pharmaceutical (Japan) | N/A | Pharmaceuticals joint venture |
| BioSante Pharmaceuticals | Aduro BioTech | N/A | Cancer vaccines license |
| Fox Chase Cancer Center | Horizon Discovery (United Kingdom) | N/A | Technology collaboration |
| Seattle Genetics | Genmab (Denmark) | N/A | Cancer therapeutics collaboration |
| Lead Discovery Center (Germany) | Bayer Schering Pharma (Germany) | N/A | Cancer therapeutics license |
| MicroDose Therapeutx | Gilead Sciences | N/A | Infectious therapeutics license |
| Precision NanoSystems (Canada) | Alnylam Pharmaceuticals | N/A | RNAi drug delivery collaboration |
| Kinex Pharmaceuticals | Hanmi Pharmaceuticals (Korea) | N/A | Cancer therapeutics license |
| Corindus | Royal Philips Electronics (Netherlands) | N/A | Medical technology collaboration |
| Stanford University | Sanofi-Aventis (France) | N/A | Research collaboraion |
April 22, 2011
http://www.burrillreport.com/article-t_cell_vaccine_developer_circassia_scores_98_million.html
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