Print“Tesaro was co-founded in 2010 by venture firm New Enterprise Associates and former executives of MGI Pharma, a cancer drug developer that was acquired by Japanese drugmaker Eisai in 2008 for $3.9 billion.”
Investors are betting big on Tesaro, a Boston-based biopharmaceutical startup barely a year old, to the tune of $101 million. They are laying odds in favor of an experienced management team and a strategy to acquire, develop, and commercialize cancer drugs after proof-of-concept has been established.
Tesaro was co-founded in 2010 by venture firm New Enterprise Associates and former executives of MGI Pharma, a cancer drug developer that was acquired by Japanese drugmaker Eisai in 2008 for $3.9 billion. Together they funded the startup with $20 million in a series A financing in May 2010 to facilitate its strategy of acquiring, developing and commercializing cancer and supportive care products. At the time, New Enterprise reserved another $40 million to support its growth.
Tesaro used the initial funding round to in-license its first drug candidate, rolapitant, from Opko Health in December. The drug, a neurokinin-1 receptor antagonist, is ready for late-stage trials to prevent chemotherapy-induced nausea and vomiting. In March, Tesaro in-licensed small molecule inhibitors of the ALK enzyme from Amgen, which it plans to develop as a targeted approach to treat patients with non-small cell lung cancer whose tumors express an ALK fusion protein. ALK is believed to be a key driver of tumor development in approximately 5 percent of non-small cell lung cancer patients.
The new funding will further development of both these programs and continue the expansion of Tesaro’s pipeline. “This new capital will fully fund the development of rolapitant through Phase 3 clinical trials and potential regulatory submissions, and advance the ALK inhibitor program into a clinical trial assessing safety and activity in cancer patients,” says Lonnie Moulder, CEO of Tesaro. “It will also allow us to continue to leverage the experience and competencies of our team to acquire and develop promising drug candidates with the goal of commercializing meaningful products for the treatment and support of cancer patients.”
The series B financing round was led by Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers with participation from founding investor New Enterprise Associates and new investors InterWest Partners, T. Rowe Price, Pappas Ventures, Oracle Partners, Deerfield Management and Leerink Swann.
In connection with the financing, Beth Seidenberg of KPCB and Arnold Oronsky of InterWest Partners joined the Tesaro board, which includes CEO Lonnie Moulder, President and CSO Mary Lynne Hedley, and David Mott and Paul Walker of New Enterprise Associates.
June 23, 2011
http://www.burrillreport.com/article-tesaro_secures_101_million_in_venture_capital_.html
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