Catalyst Biosciences Raises $40 Million in Series C Financing

This post was commissioned on December 4, 2008, and it was categorized as Venture Capital.

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Catalyst Biosciences has raised $40.4 million in a Series C financing round. New investor Essex Woodlands Health Ventures led the round, with participation from existing investors Burrill & Company, HealthCare Ventures, Johnson & Johnson Development Corporation, Morgenthaler Ventures, Novartis BioVentures and Sofinnova Ventures.

The company has a near IND ready therapy (CB813) for hemophilia that is poised to address some of the issues heard from physicians over the current ~$1B therapy, NovoSeven (from NovoNordisk). Hemophilia patients are initially treated by replacement therapy, receiving purified versions of the clotting factor for which they are deficient. However, a significant fraction of hemophilia A patients develop inhibitory antibodies against factor VIII and therefore become refractory to treatment with this factor. These inhibitor patients are then treated with factor VIIa (NovoSeven), an enzyme that can both initiate blood clotting and, at high doses, “bypass” the factor VIII dependent step in coagulation. However, administration of multiple doses of normal factor VIIa (NovoSeven) is often required to control bleeding episodes. In pivotal clinical trials, patients required, on average, approximately three doses over an approximately four hour time period.

Catalyst Biosciences Raises $40 Million in Series C Financing
(Via PR Newswire: Pharmaceuticals/Biotechnology.)

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Eben Tessari

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Eben is a highly caffeinated business development associate at a small, cash sensitive pharmaceutical company somewhere in Massachusetts. He enjoys cliche-less banter, compartmentalization, non-equilibrium thermodynamics and NPV analysis. Agree or disagree with what he's posted? He encourages comments.

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