BRANFORD, Conn., June 14 /PRNewswire/ -- Cellular Genomics Inc. (CGI), a chemical genetics based drug discovery and development company, today announced that it has completed the final closing of an oversubscribed Series C private equity financing raising a total of $34.9 million. Investors participating in this final close of the round include new investors CDP Capital, RiverVest Venture Partners and Toucan Capital Corporation, as well as previous investors Coastview Capital and Connecticut Innovations Inc.
CGI's other major investors include CHL Medical Partners, Emerging Technology Partners, Flagship Ventures, Lilly BioVentures, MPM Capital and Vector Fund Management.
"I am delighted by the outstanding group of investors we have been able to attract to the company, and look forward to working together to progress CGI's promising drug discovery programs," said Louis Matis, M.D., President and Chief Executive Officer of CGI. "The capital raised in this round will allow us to advance into the clinic our novel drug development programs in several major therapeutic areas."
Upon this close of the financing, Gordon Binder, founder and Managing Director of Coastview Capital, has joined the CGI board of directors. Mr. Binder was the Chief Executive Officer of Amgen, the world's largest biotech company, from 1988 through 2000. During his tenure as CEO, Amgen grew from 400 employees to rank within the top 20 pharmaceutical companies in worldwide revenues, the top 15 in U.S. sales and the top 10 in market capitalization. Mr. Binder serves on the boards of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the California Institute of Technology. He has been Chairman of BIO, the biotechnology industry trade association, and PhRMA, the pharmaceutical industry trade association. He has a bachelor's degree in Electrical Engineering from Purdue University and an MBA from Harvard Business School.
"It's a great honor to serve on the board of directors of CGI. I'm looking forward very much to participating in the success of this promising emerging company," said Gordon Binder.
"In CGI, we believe we have found the winning combination that investors are always seeking: great technology with strong management behind it. We are delighted to join forces with a solid group of investors and are looking forward to supporting the company as it advances its programs," said Sylvain Gareau, Partner at CDP Capital.
Also with the close of this financing, Mark Mendel, Ph.D., of RiverVest Venture Partners and Bruce Robertson, Ph.D., of Toucan Capital Corporation will be observers to the CGI Board.
About CGI:
Cellular Genomics Inc. (CGI) is a privately held genomics-based biopharmaceutical company that is pioneering a unique, highly integrated chemical genetics platform (Analog Sensitive Kinase Allele, or ASKA, technology) to discover and develop kinase and other signal transduction inhibitors for multiple clinical indications. CGI has established state-of- the art small molecule drug discovery capabilities, including proprietary chemical libraries generated through the company's High-throughput Accelerated Lead Optimization (HALO) platform. CGI has generated potent, selective lead candidates in three drug discovery and development programs in autoimmune and inflammatory disease, cancer, and angiogenesis that are advancing rapidly toward the clinic. CGI's proprietary chemical genetics technologies have broad applications across all phases of drug discovery, which the company is leveraging both to advance its own internal drug development programs as well as to establish partnerships with pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies. The Company has established research collaborations with Affymetrix, Eli Lilly and Company, Pfizer Inc., Schering AG, and Serono SA. Please visit http://www.cellulargenomics.com/ for additional information.
This news release contains certain forward-looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties. Such statements are only predictions and the company's actual results may differ materially from those anticipated in these forward-looking statements. Factors that may cause such differences include the risk that products that appeared promising in early research and clinical trials do not demonstrate safety or efficacy in larger-scale clinical trials and the risk that the company will not obtain approval to market its products.
Cellular Genomics Inc.