Revamped Laguna Pharma Reels in $30 Million, Snags a New CEO, and Moves to San Diego
February 17, 2015
By Riley McDermid, BioSpace.com Breaking News Sr. Editor
Heart valve startup Laguna Pharmaceuticals, previously known as ChanRx, said Tuesday that is has finished up a $30 million Series B funding round, and added that it will name a new CEO and move its operations from Cleveland, Ohio, to La Jolla, Calif.
The round was led by Versant Ventures and Frazier Healthcare, with BioMed Ventures and Series A investor Sante Ventures also participating.
As part of the announcement, Laguna said Bob Baltera will now become its chief executive officer. Baltera lead Amira Pharmaceuticals until its $475 million acquisition by Bristol-Myers Squibb Company in 2011 and is a good fit for a scrappy young startup looking to push into the heavily populate and wildly competitive cardiovascular market.
"I see this as a great opportunity given the tremendous but unrecognized value of Laguna's assets," said Baltera in a statement.
"I will be joining a stellar management team led by our co-founder and chief medical officer, Howard Dittrich, who has brought tremendous advances forward in his work at NovaCardia and other cardiovascular companies,” he said. “With the support of our investors, we are ready to move this therapy into Phase III studies to explore full potential of vanoxerine in patients suffering from atrial fibrillation."
Laguna Pharmaceuticals said it will use the money to fund Phase III trials of its flagship compound, vanoxerine, which treats atrial fibrillation (AF) and atrial flutter (AFL).
“AF is the most common cardiac arrhythmia today and its prevalence is expected to double by 2040,” said the company. “Vanoxerine has the potential to become a leading pharmaceutical option to rapidly terminate AF in both hospital and home settings. In a Phase IIb study, a 400 mg dose of vanoxerine had efficacy levels nearing those of the leading intervention, electrical shock treatment known as direct current cardioversion.”
As part of the new funding deal, Jerel Davis, from Versant, and Jamie Topper, from Frazier Healthcare, will join Laguna’s board of directors.
"We see distinctive promise for vanoxerine to help address the significant unmet need in atrial fibrillation," said Davis. "We look forward to working with this proven management team, as well as Jamie Topper and the teams at Frazier, BioMed Ventures and Santé, to rapidly progress one of the most clinically advanced pharmaceutical agents for AF."
BioSpace Temperature Poll
Will Job Cuts Continue? After a week that saw Quintiles, Sanofi and Actavis slashing almost a 1,000 biotech jobs, BioSpace wonders if the ax will continue to fall. Give us your thoughts about the sector's "streamlining" below.