Delenex Therapeutics, a Switzerland-based drug developer, has extended its series A round by CHF16.7m ($19.3m) to CHF30.2m by adding Novo Ventures, the quasi-corporate venturing unit of Denmark-based medical foundation Novo, to its consortium.
Thomas Dyrberg, senior partner with Novo Ventures, will join Delenex’s board.
Novo joins venture capital firms SV Life Sciences, HBM BioCapital, HBM BioVentures, BioMedInvest and VI Partners that had backed its CHF13.5m first close of the A round in November.
Fourteen months earlier, in September 2009, Delenex spun out of ESBATech when the parent company with its ophthalmology business was acquired by medical device maker Alcon. Delenex received access to all rights to the further development, application and royalty-free commercialisation of the clinically validated ESBATech antibody technology and products in all fields outside ophthalmology.
In February this year, Delenex hired Eric de La Fortelle as its chief executive and Jakob Schlapbach as chief financial officer.