IP Group has participated in a $92m series C round for Pulmocide, a developer of treatments for respiratory diseases that was spun out of Imperial College London.
Pulmocide, a UK-based developer of therapies for serious acute and chronic respiratory diseases based on research at Imperial College London, secured $92m in series C commitments today from backers including commercialisation firm IP Group.
Investment company Jeito Capital led the oversubscribed round, which also attracted pharmaceutical firms Asahi Kasei Pharma, GlaxoSmithKline and Johnson & Johnson, the latter two through SR One and Johnson & Johnson Innovation – JJDC, respectively.
F-Prime Capital, an investment arm of financial services group Fidelity, filled out the line-up together with Adjuvant Capital, SV Health Investors and Longwood Fund.
The money will be provided in tranches, subject to milestones. IP Group has committed $10m and is supplying $3m as part of the first tranche, giving it a 14.4% stake in Pulmocide.
Founded in 2007, Pulmocide is focussed on respiratory diseases and its lead asset, PC945, is an inhaled therapy for patients suffering from invasive pulmonary aspergillosis – a severe fungal infection with a high mortality rate – who have not responded to other treatments.
The series C financing will primarily go towards advancing PC945 through a phase 3 trial. Sabine Dandiguian, managing partner at Jeito, and Kabeer Aziz, co-founder and principal at Adjuvant, have joined the board of directors.
Pulmocide obtained $30m in a series B round backed by Touchstone Innovations (subsequently acquired by IP Group), SR One, Johnson & Johnson Innovation – JJDC, F-Prime Capital, Longwood Fund and SV Health Investors (then known as SV Life Sciences).
Touchstone Innovations (then known as Imperial Innovations) had backed a $27.8m series A round in 2013, when Johnson & Johnson, F-Prime Capital (then known as Fidelity Biosciences) and SV Health Investors also took part.
