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Cellular Genomics Breaks VC Drought
Branford biotech gets $22M in private financing
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Business New Haven
2/2/2004
By: BNH
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Branford biotech gets $22M in private financing
BRANFORD - Cellular Genomics Inc. (CGI), a chemical genetics-based drug discovery and development company, announced that it has raised $22.3 million in the initial close of a third-round private equity financing.
This round of financing is being led by Lilly BioVentures, and has been joined by new investors Coastview Capital and Emerging Technology Partners, the company said. It also includes existing investors including Connecticut Innovations Inc. (CII), Flagship Ventures, MPM Capital, and Vector Fund Management.
"We are very pleased to have attracted new investors with such broad knowledge of the drug-discovery and -development process, and are gratified by the continued strong support of our distinguished group of existing investors," said Louis Matis, M.D., president and CEO of the privately held CGI.
"Building on the rapid progress we have made to date, the funds raised in this round will allow us to advance our novel and exciting drug discovery programs in cancer, angiogenesis and autoimmune/inflammatory diseases into clinical development and to achieve key clinical milestones."
Upon this first close of the financing, Nick Colangelo, managing director of Lilly BioVentures, and Douglas Reed, M.D., managing director of Vector Fund Management, have joined the CGI board of directors.
"We were attracted by CGI's unique combination of breakthrough chemical genetics technologies and novel drug discovery programs," said Colangelo. "The company has made impressive progress in leveraging their technologies for drug development, and we look forward to working with the company's outstanding team to realize the significant potential of their exciting therapeutic programs."
"CGI's technology can significantly improve our understanding of the biology of kinases, which is one of the most attractive classes of targets in the pharmaceutical industry today," said Vector Fund's Reed. "I've been impressed with how quickly CGI has been able to identify highly potent lead candidates against several novel kinase targets, and we expect this work to lead to a number of attractive pharmaceutical partnerships over the next few years."
The financing announcement comes following a long drought of venture-capital investment in Connecticut companies. The $22 million CGI raised in this round is two-thirds of the sum ($33.1 million) raised by all Connecticut companies in the third quarter of 2003 (BNH, Nov. 5, 2003).
CGI is an early-stage company that says it expects to launch its first clinical trial next year.
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