Biotech vets launch new antibody venture in Seattle

Xconomy has the story this morning about a new biotech being launched in Seattle under the guidance of a pair of noted biotech entrepreneurs.

Johnny Stine, a founder at Theraclone Sciences, and Steve Wiley, who co-founded VLST, are joining forces on V-Gene. The fledgling biotech plans to develop new antibodies for infectious diseases and cancer, and intends to begin preclinical testing in the next 12 to 18 months. An undisclosed venture investor has put up $1.2 million in seed money for the venture.

The two developers say they turned down a much larger cache of cash in order to reserve a bigger chunk of equity for themselves.  

"Since we know the rules now, we can play the game according to our rules," Stine tells Xconomy's Luke Timmerman. "We can rapidly get in some money, rapidly create antibodies, get some quick validation, raise a Series B, and then we can wave goodbye to the company. I have no plans to keep working beyond the Series A financing. I'll come back here (to North Coast) and do this process again. We think we have an antibody incubator."

- here's the article from Xconomy

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