Conatus Pharmaceuticals, a liver disease healthcare company, has raised $20m in an initial close of its series B round from a consortium including Switzerland-based drugs company F Hoffman-La Roche’s corporate venturing unit.
Canada-based venture capital firm AgeChem led the B round, which included participation by existing investors Aberdare Ventures, Advent Venture Partners, Bay City Capital, Gilde Healthcare Partners, and Roche Venture Fund.
Conatus will use the proceeds to advance the clinical development of CTS-1027, a phase II-stage drug candidate the company licensed from Roche for hepatitis C-infected patients.
The series B financing will remain open for an additional period as other potential investors conclude their diligence and the company had raised $53m in total.
In July, Conatus bought its chief executive’s former business from Pfizer for reportedly less than a tenth of its sale price in 2005.
Pfizer had paid an estimated $400m to $500m for Idun Pharmaceuticals in 2005, according to news provider VentureWire in an article at the time, although this was most recently estimated at $298m, before the sale of the subsidiary to Conatus this month.
News provider PEHub said after an interview with Steven Mento, the former chief executive of Idun and current head of Conatus, that, as the new firm had not needed to raise new venture funding, the price tag for the recent sale of Idun was "well under $30m".
Drugs peers Novartis and Abbott Laboratories had been part of the consortium originally backing Idun during its $109m venture fundraising.