Ambit Biosciences, an anti-cancer drugs developer formerly known as Aventa Biosciences, has extended its series D round by $30m after halting its plans to float in the US.
Venture capital firm Apposite Capital led the D-2 round, which included peers Perseus-Soros Biopharmaceutical Fund, OrbiMed Advisors, Forward Ventures, GIMV, GrowthWorks, Radius Ventures, Horizon Technology Finance and NovaQuest (which spun off from drugs group Quintiles in November) and corporate venturing backing firm Genechem, Roche Venture Fund and MedImmune Ventures.
Alan Lewis, executive president of Ambit, said: "Our existing investors have reaffirmed their confidence in the company, providing us with sufficient funding to pursue our strategy and enabling us to withdraw our plans for an initial public offering."
In October, Ambit raised $15m of a planned $15.9m round of debt, rights and securities from 18 investors, according to a recent regulatory filing first seen by news provider Xconomy.
Ambit originally raised $49.3m in its series D round in 2007, led again by Apposite Capital and including corporate venturing from MedImmune Ventures, which is now part of AstraZeneca; NovaQuest; Roche Venture Fund; and Genechem. The other VCs in the D round were OrbiMed Advisors, Radius Ventures, Horizon Technology Finance, Perseus-Soros Biopharmaceutical Fund, Forward Ventures, Avalon Ventures, GIMV and Jov-CMDF.
In May 2005, Ambit made the final close of its series C round at $31m led by Roche Venture Fund, while the first two rounds raised an aggregate $20.8m in 2000.