Brickell Biotech, a US–based developer of drug therapies for the treatment of skin diseases, has raised $7m in its series B round led by South Korea-based cosmetics maker AmorePacific’s corporate venturing unit.
Alongside AmorePacific Ventures in the B round was venture capital firm Palisade Capital Management’s Concentrated Equity Partnership II fund.
In July 2010, Brickell raised $6.2m from 13 undisclosed investors, according to its regulatory filing.
AmorePacific has also gained an option to first negotiate an exclusive license to market two of Brickell’s novel compounds in Korea.
Paul Kang, managing director of AmorePacific Ventures, which was founded in July 2011 after a decade of corporate venturing deals in healthcare, said: “We are impressed with Brickell’s leadership team and we are pleased to partner with them as they continue to develop a pipeline of innovative compounds.”
In April 2011, Brickell licensed the BBI-2111 compund from the University of Manchester after crops company Syngenta assigned the intellectual property to the UK-based university’s commercialization unit, UMIP, following its scientists, Ian Kimber and Rebecca Dearman, joining the faculty in 2007.
Reginald Hardy, the former chief at Concordia Pharmaceuticals sold to Kadmon last year and Sano (acquired by Elan), runs Brickell, which is named after an urban neighborhood in Miami, Florida.
Hardy said: “We look forward to working with AmorePacific and our other investors and partners as we move forward with the development of these novel, first-in-class dermatology compounds, which hold great promise for the marketplace.”
Roberts Mitani advised for AmorePacific Ventures on the deal.