US-based Cylene Pharmaceuticals has raised $12m from its existing venture capital and corporate venturing investors in its series C round reportedly extended over more than three years.
Drugs companies Eli Lilly and Novartis through their corporate venturing divisions reinvested in the C round alongside venture capital firms Sanderling Ventures, HBM BioVentures, BioVentures Investors, Mitsui and Morningside Venture Investments.
News provider VentureWire said the latest $12m was an extension to Cylene’s $44m C round that closed in January 2007.
The C round extension is to fund clinical trials of anti-cancer drug CX-4945 that was found when researching a separate drug, CX-3543, which was the primary objective of the initial $44m.
Reinhard Ambros, executive director of the Novartis BioVenture Funds and director of Cylene, said: "Cylene’s clinical development efforts, led by doctor Daniel Von Hoff, lead the industry in targeting CK2 with potent and selective inhibitors for the treatment of various forms of cancer."
In 2005, Cylene raised $26.3m in its series B round and $6.5m in an extended series A round from 2001 when the company was known as Cyternex.