Existing backers AstraZeneca and Johnson & Johnson returned for a round that will advance PhaseBio's orphan disease drug pipeline, based on research from Duke University.
PhaseBio, a US-based orphan disease drug developer exploiting research from Duke University, closed a $34m series D round on Wednesday that included pharmaceutical firms AstraZeneca and Johnson & Johnson.
Cormorant Asset Management, Rock Springs Capital, Mountain Group Partners, New Enterprise Associates (NEA), Hatteras Venture Partners, Syno Capital and Fletcher Spaght Ventures also took part. Johnson & Johnson invested through Johnson & Johnson Innovation – JJDC.
PhaseBio is working on treatments for orphan diseases and in particular cardiopulmonary disorders that affect the lungs and heart that will be based on its elastin-like polypeptide (ELP) technology, which in turn relies on synthesised biopolymers.
ELP was developed by co-founder Ashutosh Chilkoti, a professor in Duke’s biomedical engineering department. PhaseBio originally owned the full rights to ELP, but sublicensed it back to the university for the development of long-acting cancer drugs with minimal toxic side effects in 2016.
The series D proceeds will fund work on PhaseBio’s lead drug candidate, PB2452, which is in phase 1 clinical trials for patients on the blood thinning medicine ticagrelor who experience major bleeding.
The company also intends to advance PB2452 into phase 2 trials for a heart condition known as pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH) that are expected to commence in the third quarter of 2018.
The round included the conversion of existing promissory notes, likely the $14.7m in convertible note financing PhaseBio raised from AstraZeneca, Johnson & Johnson Innovation – JJDC, NEA, Hatteras Venture Partners, Fletcher Spaght and Syno Capital in January 2017.
Incorporating the 2017 financing into the latest round, PhaseBio would have raised a total of $139m, $48.4m of which came in a series B round featuring JJDC and Astellas Venture Management, the corporate venturing arm of pharmaceutical company Astellas, which closed in 2012.
NEA, Hatteras Venture Partners and Fletcher Spaght Ventures also took part in the series B round, returning for a $40m series C in 2015 that as led by AstraZeneca and also backed by Johnson & Johnson Innovation – JJDC.
– A version of this article first appeared on our sister site, Global Corporate Venturing.
