CAMBRIDGE, Mass., Feb. 9 /PRNewswire/ -- Targanta Therapeutics, a privately held biopharmaceutical company developing antibacterial drugs, announced today that it has raised $70 million in a Series C venture round. The financing was led by Brookside Capital, Skyline Ventures, Radius Ventures, and OrbiMed Advisors, and included existing investors Seaflower Ventures, VenGrowth Advanced Life Sciences Fund, and the Canadian Medical Discoveries Fund, among others.
The company intends to utilize this capital to prepare and submit the New Drug Application (NDA) for its lead product, oritavancin, for the treatment of complicated skin and skin structure infections (cSSSI). Targanta expects to file the NDA in the second half of 2007. In addition, the Series C will help fund new oritavancin clinical trials in pneumonia, bacteremia and single dose treatment for cSSSI.
“We are pleased that the new and existing investors participating in this round recognize the significant opportunity to develop and commercialize novel antibiotics, like oritavancin, to address the critical unmet need to fight the growing prevalence of serious gram-positive infections, including those caused by multi-resistant strains like MRSA (Methicillin Resistant Staphylococcus aureus),” said Mark Leuchtenberger, President and CEO. “With two successfully completed Phase 3 trials in cSSSI and a pre-NDA meeting with FDA behind us, this financing should greatly enhance our ability to file an NDA for oritavancin this year and prepare for a U.S. launch, if approval is received. Additionally, this funding allows us to leverage oritavancin’s broad gram- positive spectrum activity and superior in vitro potency to pursue its development in other indications, thus providing Targanta with multiple opportunities to build a substantial franchise around this product.”
In relation to the Series C financing, Jay Venkatesan, Director, of Brookside, and Eric M. Gordon, Ph.D., Partner, Skyline, have joined Targanta’s Board of Directors.
“The gram-positive bacterial market could approach several billion dollars in the U.S. over the next 10 years,” said Dr. Gordon, who also founded Vicuron, an anti-infectives company acquired by Pfizer in 2005, “and we believe that oritavancin will compete extremely well within that market. Skyline invested in Targanta because we believe oritavancin is the gram- positive antibiotic with the broadest spectrum against resistant organisms and the highest potency. In addition, because of oritavancin’s mechanism of action, we believe that gram positive bacteria are less likely to develop resistance to oritavancin than to other antibiotics.”
About Oritavancin
Oritavancin, Targanta’s lead product candidate, is a once-daily, semi- synthetic glycopeptide antibiotic with rapid bactericidal activity against all clinically relevant serious gram-positive infections, including multi- resistant strains. Oritavancin’s multiple targets and mechanisms of action work against the development of resistant strains, which is important when treating serious gram-positive infections. To date, over 1,500 individuals have received oritavancin in clinical trials, including two large multicenter Phase III studies performed by former developers Eli Lilly and Intermune to demonstrate oritavancin as an effective and safe therapy for complicated skin and skin structure infections. Targanta expects to file a New Drug Application (NDA) for oritavancin with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration in the second half of 2007.
About Targanta Therapeutics
Targanta Therapeutics is a privately held biopharmaceutical company developing and commercializing antibacterial drugs to treat serious infections in the hospital setting. Its pipeline includes an array of antibacterial agents in various stages of development. The company has operations in Cambridge, MA, Indianapolis, IN, and Montreal, Canada. For further information about Targanta, visit the company website, www.targanta.com.
Source: Targanta Therapeutics
