MALVERN, Pa.--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- PhaseBio Pharmaceuticals, Inc., a privately held, clinical-stage biotechnology company developing drugs to treat diabetes, metabolic disease and cardiovascular disease, announced today that it has raised $15 million from investors and approximately $489,000 from grants which were awarded to support the company’s two lead product development programs.
In December 2009, PhaseBio received $10 million out of a $25 million Series B financing commitment led by New Enterprise Associates, with participation from OSI Investment Holdings (now Astellas Venture Management) and previous investors Johnson & Johnson Development Corporation, Hatteras Venture Partners and Fletcher Spaght Ventures. These investors have now contributed the remaining $15 million to complete the Series B financing as a result of PhaseBio’s recent launch of Phase 1/2a testing of GlymeraTM (PB1023) to treat Type 2 diabetes and the company’s progress advancing its second lead compound toward an IND filing planned for 2011. PhaseBio was also awarded $489,000 in two federal grants under the Qualified Therapeutic Discovery Project (QTDP) program to help fund these development programs.”
“We have made great progress during the past year with the advancement of our pipeline and the recent launch of our clinical program in diabetes,” said Dr. Chris Prior, chief executive officer of PhaseBio. “As a result, we have been able to complete our $25 million Series B financing round which will allow us to continue to develop our product pipeline. We are also gratified to receive funding under the Qualifying Therapeutic Discovery Project program in recognition of our efforts to develop novel drug candidates to treat Type 2 diabetes and resistant hypertension using our proprietary elastin-like biopolymer technology. These funds will be used to support clinical testing of GlymeraTM in patients with Type 2 diabetes and complete preparations for clinical testing of our second product development compound, VasomeraTM, to treat resistant hypertension.”
About PhaseBio Pharmaceuticals, Inc.
PhaseBio is a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company developing novel drugs to treat diabetes, metabolic disease and cardiovascular disease. The company uses elastin-like biopolymers to increase the half-life, bioavailability, efficacy and ease of administration of therapeutic drugs and reduce their side effects and costs. This technology, which is licensed to PhaseBio exclusively on a world-wide basis, was originally developed by Ashutosh Chilkoti, Ph.D., professor of biomedical engineering at Duke University. GlymeraTM is PhaseBio’s most advanced product candidate and is in clinical testing as a potential treatment for hyperglycemia associated with Type 2 diabetes. PhaseBio is privately owned with headquarters and research laboratories in Malvern, Pennsylvania.
