Pharma Companies Secure About $250 Million in Financing Today
Venture capitalists are flexing their muscles today with the significant support of pharma and biotech companies. Approximately $250 million in financing has been secured to support various pipelines to address multiple concerns.
Boston-based Decibel Therapeutics secured $55 million in a Series C financing round to support to support the company’s clinical and preclinical product candidates. Additionally, the company said it will use a portion of the funds to “build out its comprehensive hearing drug discovery and development platform and capabilities.” The funding round was supported by Third Rock Ventures, GV (Google Ventures), SR One and Regeneron Pharmaceuticals. Additional investors include Foresite Capital, Bessemer Venture Partners, Schroder Adveq, S-Cubed, Longevity, and additional undisclosed institutional investors, the company said. The company launched in 2015 with a $52 million financing round supported by SR One.
Last year Decibel and Regeneron forged a collaborative alliance to discover and develop new potential therapeutics to protect, repair, and restore hearing. As part of that deal, Regeneron said it will provide Decibel with broad access to its proprietary suite of technologies to support Decibel's goal of discovering important new medicines for hearing.
Steven Holtzman, president and chief executive officer of Decibel, touted the investors who supported the latest fundraising effort. He said the company’s partners have “track records of long-term commitments to building great companies.” That commitment includes following up on those private investments with “meaningful participation in subsequent public financings.”
Decibel isn’t the only company today to announce significant financing. Boston-based Emulate closed on a Series C round worth $36 million. That financing round was supported by Founders Fund, and new investors, ALS Investment Fund, SciFi VC, as well as members of GlassWall Syndicate Association. The funds raised will be used to expand the functionality of its automated, lab-ready Human Emulation System, BioSpace reported this morning.
Shanghai-based Alpha Biopharma Inc. secured $65 million in Series A funding that will be used to support a multi-center Phase II study of AZD3759, AlphaBio's lead product. Not only will the company use the funds to support its lead product, AlphaBio said the remaining proceeds from the Series A will be used to expand the company’s product pipeline. AlphaBio’s Series A was supported by prominent Chinese venture capital firm Qiming Venture Partners, as well as TF Fund and the LYZZ Healthcare Venture Fund.
Stealth Biotherapeutics snagged $100 million in financing, which was led by Chinese investment firm Nan Fung Technology's Pivotal Beta. Stealth Biotherapeutics is developing treatments for mitochondrial dysfunction.