Cilag, a Switzerland-based subsidiary of pharmaceutical company Johnson & Johnson, acquired Switzerland-based biopharmaceutical company Covagen on Monday for an undisclosed amount.
Covagen had raised more than $90m in venture funding since it was founded in 2007, including $50m from a series B round backed by pharmaceutical companies Novartis and Seroba Kernel along with Baxter Ventures, Gimv, Ascent Biomedical Ventures, Ventech, MPH and Edmund de Rothschild Venture Capital, which closed in February this year.
Novartis had been an investor in Covagen since its 2009 seed round, through its corporate venturing subsidiary, Novartis Venture Fund.
Covagen develops treatments for inflammatory diseases and cancer. Its lead product candidate, COVA322, is intended to treat rheumatoid arthritis and psoriatic arthritis.
The company will be absorbed into the Janssen Pharmaceutical branch of the Johnson & Johnson organisation as it works further on its Fynomer technology.
“We are very excited to further develop our pipeline and innovative FynomAb platform as part of Janssen,” said Covagen CEO Julian Bertschinger.
“Janssen’s tremendous knowledge in the research and development of biologics provides us with a great environment to develop novel FynomAb-based therapeutics addressing unmet medical needs.”