Date: 2015-01-05
Type of information: Fundraising
Company: Moderna Therapeutics (USA - MA)
Investors: Viking Global Investors LP (UK-USA), Invus (USA - MA), RA Capital Management (USA - MA), Wellington Management Company (USA - MA), AstraZeneca (UK), Alexion Pharmaceuticals (USA - CT), additional undisclosed existing investors
Amount: $450 Million
Funding type:
Planned used: The funds will be used to support the further expansion of Moderna\'s mRNA Therapeutics™ platform across multiple modalities and therapeutic areas, each powered by Moderna’s proprietary approach for utilizing modified mRNA to instruct native cellular machinery to make therapeutic proteins in vivo. To continue to drive these programs forward, Moderna plans immediate growth and expansion, including the addition of more than 100 industry leaders, drug development experts and scientists to its current team of 145 employees during the coming months.
Others: * On January 5, 2015, Moderna Therapeutics, a pioneer in the development of messenger RNA (mRNA) Therapeutics™, announced that it has raised $450 million in new funding to support the further expansion of its mRNA Therapeutics™ platform across multiple modalities and therapeutic areas. Since the company’s founding in 2011 by Flagship VentureLabs™, Moderna has secured more than $950 million in funding through financing activities and commercial partnerships. Moderna Therapeutics has now $800 million in cash after this financing. Participating in the financing round were new investors Viking Global Investors LP, Invus, RA Capital Management, and Wellington Management Company, LLP, as well as existing investors AstraZeneca and Alexion Pharmaceuticals. Additional existing investors participated in the financing. Together with partners AstraZeneca, Alexion and DARPA (The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency), Moderna is in active development of 45 preclinical programs in oncology, cardiovascular disease, rare diseases, and infectious diseases. These include programs underway at Onkaido, a Moderna venture focused exclusively on oncology, and at other therapeutically-focused ventures in development. In addition, Moderna is investing in early-stage drug discovery and development through its long-term strategic collaboration with Karolinska Institutet (KI) and Karolinska University Hospital (KUH), announced in October 2014.
Therapeutic area: Cancer - Oncology - Rare diseases - Cardiovascular diseases - Infectious diseases
