Symphogen lines up record $131M venture round

Symphogen CEO Kirsten Drejer will have something big to boast about when she shows up at the JP Morgan confab next week. The Danish biotech reports this morning that it has nailed a whopping $131 million venture round--the biggest private equity deal ever registered for a European biotech.

Novo A/S and Essex Woodlands are contributing 70 percent of the €100 million investment, which is scheduled to be injected in three equal tranches. The Danish Pension Fund PKA also joined as a new investor. The money has been earmarked to fuel the advance of its preclinical cancer products into human trials as it positions itself as a future player in the commercial market.

"Our overall goal is to progress Symphogen's early stage clinical oncology pipeline; to enhance our platform; and to move our preclinical oncology programs to proof-of-concept in humans," says Drejer. "Our work in infectious diseases and our partnerships with Genentech and Meiji Seika Kaisha, Ltd. remain fully funded." Drejer is scheduled to make her appearance in San Francisco Monday morning at 10 a.m.

"By leveraging Symphogen's proprietary platform and its initial clinical successes, the investors believe that the company is positioned to commercialize proprietary oncology products on its own as well as collaborate on new products with partners in other focus disease areas, including infectious and autoimmune disease," said Chairman Goran Ando.

- here's the Symphogen release

Editor's note: This article incorrectly implied that Symphogen's CEO is male. This mistake has been corrected.