Date: 2012-01-04
Type of information: Fundraising
Company: BerGenBio (Norway)
Investors: Sarsia Seed AS (Norway) - Investinor AS (Norway)
Amount: $8.8 million (€6.8 million)
Funding type: Series A financing round
Planned used: The financing will be used primarily to take lead compound BGB324 into clinical trials and to develop a companion diagnostic. BGB324 is a first-in-class Axl kinase inhibitor drug. Data have been presented at the annual American Society for Hematology conference in San Diego, showing the compound inhibited tumour development in preclinical Acute Myelogenous Leukemia (AML) models. Furthermore the company has shown that inhibition of Axl blocks the epithelial- mesenchymal transistion (EMT) in cancer cells and has the potential to delay or prevent metastasis, overcome and even reverse acquired resistance to chemotherapy and possibly prevent cancer recurrence. BerGenBio looks forward to completing the preclinical work and taking BGB324, into the clinic by the end of 2012, as well as developing an AXL biomarker for theranostic use.
Others: BerGenBio has completed an $8.8 million Series A financing round. Lead investors are Sarsia Seed AS and Investinor AS.
BerGenBio has a proprietary platform technology called CellSelect™, which uses information from RNAi screening studies to identify novel drug targets involved in disease.
Therapeutic area: Cancer - Oncology
