Rockville, MD-based MacroGenics has braved a chilly investment environment and garnered $25 million in venture funds to finance the developer through 2010. That money can now be put to use advancing the cancer stem cell technology that was acquired in its buyout last July of Raven Biotechnologies. And MacroGenics is also advancing work on its autoimmune, cancer and infectious disease product pipeline.
Eli Lily joined with Arcus Ventures, Innovis Investments and Nextech Venture to fund the investment round. MacroGenics is in partnership with Lilly on the Type 1 diabetes drug teplizumab. That pact is potentially worth more than $1 billion.
"The company's recent acquisition of Raven Biotechnologies provides MacroGenics with critical mass in oncology discovery and we're very excited about MacroGenics' opportunities in cancer immunotherapy," said Myoung-Ok Kwon, Ph.D., partner of Nextech Venture.
- read MacroGenics' release
- check out the report in the Washington Post