NanoBio looks for Big Pharma partners

Crain's Detroit Business is reporting that NanoBio--a 2008 Fierce 15 company [1]--is close to announcing an $11 million round of funding. It will likely be the last batch funding before the Ann Arbor-based company goes on the hunt for a Big Pharma partner. Persus will lead the round with a $10 million investment in the company

"The good news is almost all the key milestones that we talked about, the company did a great job of meeting," Norman Selby, senior managing director at Perseus, told Crain's. "This is one of those unusual cases where everything went right. Drug development is high risk. You're dealing with a lot of unknowns. But to date, all of the clinical trials have been very successful."

The University of Michigan spin-out uses nano-scale particles to create therapies that can fight bacteria, viruses and fungi while the same technology platform offers a new, intranasal approach to such diseases as anthrax, influenza and hepatitis. Persus hasn't done much to promote NanoBio yet but hopes to create buzz when the company presents at the American Society of Microbiology and the Infectious Diseases Society of America meetings. Talks with potential partners will begin this fall and NanoBio anticipates announcing a deal by early 2009.

- read the article [2] for more

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