By Maureen Martino Newton, MA-based Karyopharm Therapeutics has completed a $20 million Series A round of financing with the help of unidentified backers, according to a company press release. The developer was founded in 2009 after Epix Pharmaceuticals went bankrupt and liquidated all its assets. Karyopharm’s co-founder and CSO Sharon Shacham was a senior vice president at Epix …
By John Carroll Domain Associates has stepped up as the lead investor in a $23 million Series C packaged for aTyr Pharma, a four-year-old biotech venture which is building a new drug platform based on some sophisticated science out of the Scripps Research Institute. San Diego-based aTyr is focused on the role played by a …
By Maureen Martino Pacific Biosciences–a 2009 Fierce 15 company–has bucked the trend of under-performing biotech IPOs with the announcement that it has raised $200 million in its initial public offering. The company sold 12.5 million shares for $16 each, pricing it in the middle of its targeted $15 to $17 range. It will trade on …
By John Carroll Third Rock Ventures and Prospect Venture Partners have partnered on a $33 million Series A for NinePoint Medical, a Cambridge, MA-based startup that is developing new technology that can be used to examine gastrointestinal tissue for precancerous and cancerous cells. NinePoint’s goal is to give gastroenterologists a real-time diagnostic tool that would …
By Liz Jones Hollis Venture capital investments declined sharply in the third quarter of 2010, according to the MoneyTree Report from PricewaterhouseCoopers and the National Venture Capital Association based on data provided by Thomson Reuters. Venture capitalists invested $4.8 billion in 780 deals in the third quarter of 2010; these numbers reflect a decline in quarterly investment activity …
By John Carroll Novo A/S has stepped up to lead a $31 million Series B for Tobira Therapeutics, a New Jersey-based biotech that is pushing a next-gen HIV antiviral compound into a Phase IIb trial. Tobira’s lead program–a dual-action CCR5/CCR2 antagonist dubbed TBR-652, which was in-licensed from Takeda–has the potential to take its place in …
By Maureen Martino Gaithersburg, MD-based OpGen has closed a $17.3 million series B round of financing, which the company plans to use to support the commercial launch of its Argus Optical Mapping System. The new round of financing was led by jVen Capital with participation from the company’s other major investors, including CHL Medical Partners, …
By John Carroll Designing a better antibody is one of the hottest strategies driving start-up biotechs in the U.S. And one recent entry in the field has picked up a pair of powerhouse venture backers. This morning CytomX Therapeutics announced that it banked $30 million from a Series B led by Third Rock Ventures and …
By John Carroll Boston-based Third Rock Ventures, one of the busiest and best connected biotech investors in the business, has raised $426 million for its second fund and has officially announced plans for a West Coast office. Former Portola CEO Charles Homcy will take over as the partner in charge of the San Francisco office and Alexis Borisy, who …
By John Carroll Following a series of bitter setbacks in the clinic, Eli Lilly plans to add $150 million to three new biotech venture capital funds that would total $750 million. Lilly venture chief Darren Carroll tellsBloomberg, which broke the story, that the pharma giant expects to cover about 20 percent of each of the …