In an interesting play, four rival drug giants are
using their venture capital arms to back a company they think has come up with a major new class of therapeutics. Biotech company Aileron Therapeutics received financing from GlaxoSmithKline plc (NYSE:GSK), Novartis AG (NYSE:NVS), Roche Holding AG (SWX:ROG) and Eli Lilly and Co. (NYSE:LLY).
Aileron has raised $20 million in the past and got $40 million in this Series D financing. A Reuters article notes that in recent years the VC arms of Big Pharma companies have taken a more active role in
funding young biotechs as the credit crunch turned off much of the financing from conventional VCs.
"We believe that stapled peptides could represent a 'fourth estate' in therapeutics, emerging as a major class akin to small molecules, antibodies and vaccines," said Michael Diem, a partner at Glaxo's venture arm, SR One Ltd. Aileron uses certain chemical structures to "create drug compounds that are uniquely effective for targets that are 'undruggable' with currently available drug approaches." Its novel approach could be used in immune/inflammation, metabolic disease, infectious disease and oncology.
Drug companies have boosted their oncology offering with licensing deals and with a
string of acquisitions in the sector of late.
As part of the closing of this financing deal, Diem and Enrico
Petrillo, a managing director of Excel Medical Fund, will join the
board of Aileron.
On the subject of the four
Big Pharma VC's investing in Aileron, a PharmaTimes article says that in all of the 426 biotech financing deals in 2008 and 2009, there are only four that included more than one such fund.
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Baz HiralalGo to the storyGo to Aileron's announcementTrend post: Oncology M&A could save lives
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