DANBURY, Conn.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Aug. 2, 2006--Biodel Inc., a developer of drug delivery technologies that increase drug efficacy, enhance drug performance, and make drugs easier for patients to take, announced a $21 million Series B financing led by Great Point Partners, OrbiMed Advisors, and Vivo Ventures.
As a part of the Series B financing, Biodel also announced the addition of David Kroin, Co-founder and Managing Director at Great Point Partners, Albert Cha, MD, PhD, Managing Partner at Vivo Ventures and Samuel Wertheimer, PhD, Principal at OrbiMed Advisors, to its Board of Directors.
“I am enthusiastic to be joining the Biodel team as we are highly impressed by the superior pharmacodynamics associated with Viaject (TM) rapid acting insulin and believe that the clinical trials will demonstrate that this is a major advancement in the treatment of diabetes,” said Mr. Kroin, co-founder and managing director at Great Point Partners. “Biodel has shown compelling proof of concept in initial clinical trials, and we look forward to the results of the ongoing Phase 2 studies and soon to be initiated Phase 3 clinical trials.”
“The strong interest in this financing by top healthcare investors validates the progress we have made since our inception in 2003,” said Solomon S. Steiner, Ph. D., Chairman and CEO of Biodel. “We are excited to continue our great progress in developing Biodel’s technology which we see as a new paradigm in the management of diabetes patients. We also welcome our newly added board members as they each bring extensive knowledge of this space and add to our highly experienced team.”
Biodel’s first potential product is a rapid acting injectable insulin called Viaject(TM). This product is a novel formulation of recombinant human insulin designed to speed the delivery of insulin into the blood, and in a manner that closely resembles the body’s normal release of insulin into the bloodstream which will improve the efficacy and efficiency of the drug.
Mr. David Kroin is a co-founder and managing director at Great Point Partners. Prior to founding Great Point in 2003, Mr. Kroin was an investment professional at J.H. Whitney & Co., a multi-billion dollar alternative asset management firm, from 1998 to 2003, and ultimately was a senior member of the healthcare team and appointed Partner of a J. H. Whitney & Co. affiliated fund. While at Whitney & Co., he served on the boards of directors of U.S. Bioservices Corp. (acquired by AmeriSource), Icon International Inc. (acquired by Omnicom) and several other companies. At Great Point, he has completed structured financings for companies such as Panacos Pharmaceuticals, Inc., Genta Inc. and Keryx Biopharmaceuticals. Mr. Kroin was also an analyst in the investment banking group at Merrill Lynch & Company and an actuarial intern at Metropolitan Life. He holds a B.S. degree in actuarial mathematics from the University of Michigan.
Dr. Albert Cha is an accomplished scientist with expertise in neuroscience and medical devices. He received his B.S. and M.S. in electrical engineering from Stanford University and worked at Oracle Corporation in pharmaceutical consulting. He subsequently received an M.D. with honors (AOA) and Ph.D. in Neuroscience from the University of California at Los Angeles, where he won multiple awards including the Outstanding Graduate Student Award. Dr. Cha has published several research articles in the field of molecular biophysics in journals such as Nature and Neuron. He currently serves on the boards of several private biotechnology and medical device companies. He joined Vivo Ventures in 2000 and became a partner in 2003.
Samuel P. Wertheimer, Ph.D., joined OrbiMed in 2000 and is a Principal in the private equity funds management group. Dr. Wertheimer’s prior experience includes work in biotechnology finance, technology transfer, intellectual property and research in immunology and molecular biology. Dr. Wertheimer was a Fellow at the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center. Dr. Wertheimer received a Ph.D. in Molecular Biology from New York University, an M.P.H. from Yale University and a B.A. from The Johns Hopkins University. He currently serves on the boards of several private biotechnology companies including ChemoCentryx and Corus Pharma.
Leerink Swann & Co. and McGinnSmith & Co. acted placement agents in the transaction.
About Biodel, Inc.
Biodel Inc. is a biopharmaceutical drug delivery company. Biodel develops drug delivery technologies that increase drug efficacy, enhance drug performance, and make drugs easier for patients to take. This technology is applicable to a wide range of peptides, proteins and other macromolecules. Using this technology, Biodel has developed a novel drug formulation of recombinant human insulin designed to speed the delivery of insulin into the blood called Viaject(TM). Biodel’s current focus is gaining FDA approval for Viaject to treat patients with Type 1 and Type 2 diabetes. For more information, please visit http://www.biodel.com.
Contact: Biodel Inc. Erik Steiner, 203-798-3600
Source: Biodel Inc.
