Annexon, a US-based biopharmaceutical company backed by pharmaceutical firm Novartis, completed a $100m financing round yesterday led by hedge fund manager Redmile Group.
Deerfield Management, Eventide Asset Management, Farallon Capital Management, Janus Henderson Investors and Logos Capital also took part in the round as new investors, along with funds and accounts managed by BlackRock.
The round was filled out by existing shareholders Adage Capital Partners, Bain Capital Life Sciences, Blackstone Life Sciences, New Enterprise Associates (NEA), Satter Medical Technology Partners and Surveyor Capital.
Spun out of Stanford University in 2011, Annexon is developing treatments for body, brain and eye disorders caused by the aberrant activation of a molecule in the immune system called C1q which can lead to autoimmune and neurodegenerative diseases.
Douglas Love, Annexon’s president and CEO, said: “We are very pleased to have such a strong investor group supporting our team, unique platform and deep pipeline of product candidates for patients with autoimmune and neurodegenerative disorders.
“These funds allow us to accelerate both our clinical and preclinical programs with the goal of exploiting the vast potential of our pioneering approach to combating classical complement-mediated diseases.”
Fidelity Biosciences Research Initiative provided $1m for Annexon in 2011 on behalf of financial services and investment group Fidelity, before Novartis led a $34m series A-1 round in 2014 through Novartis Venture Fund, investing with Satter Investment Management and Clarus Ventures.
NEA led a $44m series B round for the company in 2016 that also featured Novartis Venture Fund, Satter Investment Management, Clarus and Correlation Ventures.
Annexon closed $75m in series C funding in late 2018, Bain Capital Life Sciences leading a round that included Novartis Venture Fund, Surveyor Capital, Adage Capital Partners, NEA, Satter Investment Management and Blackstone Life Sciences.
