Regado Biosciences - Top 20 Biotech VC Deals of 2009

Company: Regado Biosciences
Based: Basking Ridge, NJ
Amount: $40 million

Investors: Edmond de Rothschild Investment Partners, Domain Associates, Quaker Bioventures, Aurora Funds, Caxton Advantage Life Sciences Fund and individual investors.

Scoop: Regado Biosciences closed out the year by pulling together a $40 million Series D round to push the development of a new technology designed to give doctors better control over blood clots. Using a paired aptamer-control agent technology, the company believes its lead candidate REG1 can give physicians a tool to manage coagulation. The biotech released positive results from a Phase IIa clinical trial of REG1 at the European Society of Cardiology Congress at the end of August.

President and CEO David Mazzo said last year that the company is pursuing partnerships for REG1, an that there's been a fair amount of interest shown in the program. A Phase III trial for a compound like this would require anywhere from 10,000 to 14,000 patients and a budget of $90 million to $100 million. But while the stakes are big, the potential payoff could be huge. Mazzo estimates that an approved therapy would earn blockbuster money, with peak sales of a billion dollars--$1.5 billion to $2 billion with European and worldwide sales included.

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