Artisan Pharma has raised $39 million in its first round of financing. NGN Capital led the round in a syndicate with JAFCO, New Leaf Venture Partners, Bio*One Capital and NovaQuest. As part of the financing, Asahi Kasei Pharma Corporation has licensed a late-stage clinical development biologic, ART-123, to Artisan. The experimental biologic is being studied as a therapy for disseminated intravascular coagulation in sepsis and deep vein thrombosis. The license includes development and commercialization rights to all pharmaceutical applications worldwide except for Japan, China, Taiwan and Korea, where AKP retains all rights. Jeffrey D. Wager, M.D., will serve as president and CEO of Artisan.

"Artisan is a quite rare case where a pharmaceutical company spins out a very late stage biologic product with blockbuster potential and teams with venture capital investors to form a company around it," said Georg Nebgen, managing general partner of NGN Capital.

- see the release on the financing round