Portola Pharmaceuticals - Top 20 VC deals of 2008

Company: Portola Pharmaceuticals
Based: South San Francisco, CA
Amount: $60M

Investors: Advanced Technology Ventures, Sutter Hill Ventures, Prospect Venture Partners, AllianceBernstein, Brookside International Incorporated, MPM Capital, D. E. Shaw Group, Frazier Healthcare and Technology Ventures, Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan, Industrial Bank of Taiwan, Alta Partners, T. Rowe Price Threshold Partnerships, Adage Inc., Pac-Link Management Corporation, Abingworth Management, CIDC Consultants, Goldman Sachs, Undisclosed Firm

Scoop: Portola is the only company to make both the 2007 and 2008 top 20 venture capital deals list. The company rounded up $60 million in July after securing $70 million in 2007. Most of the funding will help advance Portola's lead drug betrixaban, a therapy for prevention and treatment of deep vein thrombosis and pulmonary embolism after orthopedic surgery, for stroke prevention in patients with atrial fibrillation and for secondary prevention of myocardial infarction and stroke. The money will support betrixaban through Phase II trials. Portola is also advancing its Phase I drug PRT060128 and additional preclinical targets.

Recently, Portola inked a $575 million deals that gave Novartis worldwide rights to Portola Pharmaceuticals' mid-stage anti-clotting therapeutic elinogrel.