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In the Money: Achillion
Pharma startup lures $41M in second VC round
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Business New Haven
2/4/2002
By: BNH
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NEW HAVEN - Achillion Pharmaceuticals, a privately held pharmaceutical company focused on the discovery, development and commercialization of anti-infective agents, has closed a $41 million private round of financing, placing its preferred stock to a group of investors led by SG Capital Partners, LLC and Bear Stearns Health Innoventures, LP.
Also participating in the most recent financing round are previous Achillion investors including Atlas Venture, Schroder Ventures, Advent International and Connecticut Innovations Inc. (CII), and new investors including KBL Healthcare, ING Furman Selz, Pacific Growth Equities, Oakwood Medical, Webster Financial and GE Capital.
Even as venture-capital spigots have slowed to a trickle region- and nationwide, “This $41 million financing reflects sustained and substantial support by a sophisticated group of investors, validating Achillion's business and financing strategy, proprietary technology, product candidates and management team,” explained William G. Rice, Achillion's CEO.
“Our ability to attract this magnitude and quality of investment, given this challenging financial environment, is rewarding,” he added. “With this financing we will have sufficient capital to continue to achieve key milestones, particularly in the clinical development of our lead product candidate, beta-L-Fd4C, for the treatment of both chronic hepatitis B and HIV infections.”
Less than two years after commencing operations, Achillion has raised some $65 million in equity financing. The most recent financing provides sufficient capital to drive forward the clinical development plan of beta-L-Fd4C through Phase 2 human trials and to continue the advancement of Achillion's proprietary Zinc Finger Targeting (ZFT) discovery platform.
With ZFT, Achillion identifies zinc finger proteins required for the replication of HIV and other pathogens, and applies ZFT to design small molecules that inhibit the function of those protein targets without affecting human cells.
ZFT incorporates novel target identification, state-of-the-art chemical synthesis and high-throughput screening to produce pre-clinical candidates designed to treat multiple diseases within the $33 billion infectious disease market, particularly by addressing the growing worldwide challenge of growing drug resistance.
“In the 23 months since the company's launch, Achillion has met key milestones with unprecedented speed, both in the clinical development of beta-L-Fd4C and in its ZFT platform to construct a compelling anti-infective drug pipeline,” said Marios Fotiadis of SG Capital Partners.
A privately held pharmaceutical company dedicated to addressing drug resistance in infectious diseases, Achillion focuses on the discovery, development and commercialization of small molecule anti-infective agents, with a particular emphasis on antiviral drugs to treat diseases caused by human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), hepatitis B and C viruses (HBV and HCV) and herpes viruses.
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