Synageva BioPharma Announces Completion of $45 Million Financing with New $12 Million Investment, Addition of New Leaf Venture Partners to Investor Group, and Expansion of Senior Leadership Team
Tue Oct 20, 2009 8:15am EDT
WALTHAM, Mass.--(Business Wire)--
Synageva BioPharma Corp., a privately held biopharmaceutical company, announced
today that it has completed the final closing on a $45 million financing that
began earlier this year. This final closing, which adds $12 million to the $33
million investment announced in May, includes existing investors as well as new
investor New Leaf Venture Partners (NLV), based in New York City and Menlo Park,
CA. As part of the financing, Srini Akkaraju, M.D., Ph.D., Managing Director at
NLV, will join Synageva`s Board of Directors. Synageva also announced the
expansion of its senior leadership team with several key appointments.
"This $45 million financing helps Synageva realize its vision of developing a
portfolio of innovative medicines for patients with rare diseases and high unmet
medical need," stated Sanj K. Patel, Synageva`s President and CEO. "Synageva`s
technology has advanced tremendously and allows us to develop therapies for
conditions that afflict small patient populations who are frequently overlooked
and often have no existing therapies. This development focus, along with
partnering interest we have received for our cytokine and high potency
monoclonal antibody programs, positions Synageva to generate tremendous value. I
am pleased that New Leaf Ventures has joined our other premier investors, and I
am convinced that together we will fulfill our vision to provide these therapies
to patients."
Srini Akkaraju, M.D., Ph.D., of New Leaf Venture Partners, stated, "Having
followed the company`s progress closely, I am delighted to see how Synageva has
established its technology platform as having critical advantages in developing
many types of protein therapeutics. With the addition of a team that has
substantial experience in rare disease product development, the company is
poised to execute on this new corporate vision that will help patients that are
often overlooked."
New Management Appointments
Anthony Quinn, M.D., Ph.D., Senior Vice President and Chief Medical Officer, is
responsible for developing and overseeing the clinical strategy for Synageva`s
portfolio. He is also responsible for advancing Synageva`s clinical research and
development capabilities, and expanding its translational medicine activities
focused on areas of high unmet medical need. Dr. Quinn joins Synageva from
Roche, where he was Vice President and Global Head of Clinical Research and
Exploratory Development for Inflammation. Dr. Quinn is an experienced R&D leader
with more than 20 years of clinical, translational medicine and contemporary
drug development experience across a broad range of disease areas.
Eric Grinstead, Senior Vice President, Government and Business Affairs, is
responsible for business strategy for Synageva. Most recently Eric served as
Vice President of Government Affairs and Market Access for Alexion
Pharmaceuticals, Inc. Eric has over 20 years of experience in commercial
strategy, operations, government affairs, and reimbursement at companies such as
Genzyme and Amgen.
AJ Joshi, M.D., Senior Vice President, Strategic Development and Corporate
Operations, is responsible for Synageva's corporate strategy and operations, as
well as life cycle and alliance management. Most recently, Dr. Joshi was Vice
President of US Medical Affairs and Operations at Genzyme Corporation.
Brian Conner, Vice President Quality and Regulatory Affairs/ General Manager -
Atlanta Office, is responsible for quality, regulatory affairs management, and
general operations at Synageva`s Atlanta area office and production facilities.
Brian most recently served as the Corporate Compliance Officer for Stiefel
Laboratories.
John Taylor, Vice President, Business Development, is responsible for Synageva`s
product and technology licensing and its business development functions. John
joins Synageva from Javelin Pharmaceuticals, where he was Vice President,
Business Development.
"Collectively, these new appointments bring a powerful combination of deep drug
development, rare disease market, and overall biotech industry expertise to the
Synageva leadership team," stated Patel. "They share the passion, values, and
absolute commitment that will be required to rapidly execute on our vision,
successfully develop the therapies we are targeting, and ultimately earn the
privilege of providing them to patients."
About Synageva BioPharma Corp.
Synageva BioPharma Corp., is a biopharmaceutical company dedicated to developing
and commercializing novel, next-generation, and follow-on protein therapeutics
that leverage the unique competitive advantages of its proprietary Synageva
Expression Platform (SEP). Synageva's development programs address specific
unmet medical or market needs in several therapeutic areas, including oncology
and rare disorders. The Company has generated a diverse pipeline of product
candidates, including high-potency monoclonal antibodies with up to 100-fold
increased killing activity for cancer targets, novel proteins for rare diseases,
and next-generation and follow-on cytokines.
SEP by Synageva is a novel, integrated platform of proprietary vectors and
protein production, processing and purification systems. It provides a number of
sustainable advantages over current expression systems for developing and
commercializing protein therapeutics, including: high expression levels, more
efficient purification processes, rapid scalability, consistency of end product,
substantially reduced costs, and the ability to produce certain proteins with
the potential for improved activity and/or safety profiles. Synageva has
leveraged these attributes to develop its pipeline of biopharmaceuticals,
including monoclonal antibodies with significant potency and potential efficacy
advantages. Further information regarding Synageva BioPharma Corp. is available
at www.synageva.com.
About NLV Partners
NLV Partners is a life science-dedicated venture capital firm with offices in
Menlo Park and New York. Founded by an experienced team of venture capitalists
with deep healthcare industry experience, NLV Partners invests primarily in
companies focused on clinical-stage biopharmaceutical products, early-stage
medical devices and molecular diagnostics. NLV Partners manages over $1.3
billion of assets, including NLV-I, NLV-II and the healthcare technology
portfolio of Sprout Group. For further information, visit the NLV Partners
website at www.nlvpartners.com.
Synageva BioPharma Corp.
Chris Heberlig, 781-890-1111
Director of Finance and Administration
[email protected]
Copyright Business Wire 2009