US-based Genocea Biosciences has raised $30m in Series C capital from a joint venture syndicate including Polaris Venture Partners and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Massachusetts-based Genocea, a developer of T-cell vaccines for serious health threats such as malaria raised $35m of Series B funding in January last year from an expansive grouping of nine venture capital investors, including Johnson & Johnson and Cycad Group. Polaris is looking for major returns on its investments in light of the turbulent venture capital landscape in pharmaceuticals.
To date, Genocea has reportedly raised $76m since 2006 from existing investors including, Polaris, Lux Capital, SR One – the global venture arm of GlaxoSmithKline, Johnson & Johnson Development Corporation, Skyline Ventures, Cycad Group, Auriga Partners, MP Healthcare Ventures and Morningside.
“We have made strong progress in our effort to create a new class of vaccines capable of combating serious infectious diseases that current vaccine discovery technologies cannot address,” said Chip Clark, chief executive officer at Genocea.
“Completion of this financing round is a powerful vote of confidence from the financial community that will enable us to move aggressively to create new vaccines that will improve the health of patients around the world.”
Funds raised will support the continued development of Genocea’s GEN-003 and GEN-004 programs associated with the prevention of Herpes and Streptococcus pneumonia respectively.
The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation made this equity investment as part of an initiative that commits $1bn to program-related investments to deepen the impact of The Foundation’s work.
“We are excited about the potential of the partnership with Genocea to further our global health priorities,” said Trevor Mundel, president of Global Health at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. “T cell innovation of this kind presents an intriguing opportunity to advance our global health mission through development of a new class of vaccines.”