AVEO gains $53M in financing

Cambridge, MA-based AVEO Pharmaceuticals gained $53 million in its fourth round of financing. AVEO says it will use the funding to accelerate the development of the company's pipeline of cancer therapies. New investors include Biogen Idec, Bessemer Venture Partners, Merlin BioMed Group, Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group and Vatera Holdings. This round includes a $10 million equity investment from Schering-Plough as part of the collaboration agreement to develop and commercialize AVEO's AV-299.

"Attracting additional capital from leading investors and biopharmaceutical organizations at a substantially increased valuation is a testament to the progress we have made over the last five years and the significant commercial potential of our growing pipeline of targeted cancer therapies," said Tuan Ha-Ngoc, president and CEO of AVEO Pharmaceuticals. "This funding further strengthens our ability to aggressively advance our lead oncology product candidates into the next stage of clinical trials, while continuing to explore opportunities to build our pipeline both internally and through strategic acquisitions or licensing of exciting preclinical or clinical targeted oncology compounds."

- see this release on the financing

ALSO: Cougar Biotechnology has signed an agreement with investors to sell in a private placement 2.5 million shares of its common stock at a price of $20 per share, resulting in gross proceeds to the company of $50 million. Proceeds from the financing will be used primarily for ongoing clinical development of Cougar's drug candidates, including CB7630. Release