Funding from major pharma companies to aid in antiviral development.
Alios BioPharma has sold $32 million in preferred stock as part of a Series A financing deal to develop its antiviral portfolio that included investments from several high-level pharmaceutical companies. Sales of $8 million in stock were made to SR One, the corporate financing wing of GlaxoSmithKline, and one of their investors will join prior funders from Novo A/S, Novartis Venture Fund and Roche Venture Fund on the Alios corporate board.
Kent Gossett, DVM, Ph.D. and partner at SR One, will be joining current board members Jack B. Nielsen, Novo A/S; Lawrence M. Blatt, Alios BioPharma; Campbell Murray, M.D., Novartis Venture Fund; and Carole Nuechterlein (Observer), Roche Venture Fund.
“SR One is pleased to join the distinguished Alios team and investor syndicate in their effort to realize the potential of Alios to develop multiple novel therapies for a variety of serious and life threatening viral infections,” says Gossett. “The Alios investment demonstrates SR One’s commitment to fund emerging life science companies with innovative science that has the potential to significantly advance medical care.”
The first round of deals, worth about $24 million, was completed in February with Novo A/S, Novartis Venture Fund and Roche Venture Fund involved in that first closing.
“We look forward to working closely with our new investors and members of the Board of Directors to build our company and successfully develop our pipeline,” said Lawrence M. Blatt, Ph.D., founder and CEO of Alios in February. “Several viral diseases remain difficult to treat and represent areas of significant unmet medical need. We view the Alios product candidates as a complementary approach to existing antiviral therapies where the complexity of these diseases requires treatment with multiple agents with differing mechanisms of actions.”
