US-based biopharmaceutical company Kythera closed a $37.4m series D round of financing yesterday from a pool of investors including two law firms.
Foley Ventures, the corporate venturing unit of law firm Foley & Lardner intended to invest in the firm’s clients, and two partners of peer Latham & Watkins as well as the latter firm’s investment partnership, VP Company Investments 2008, invested in Kythera.
Filling out the series D investors were private equity fund Jafco, venture capital (VC) firms Versant Ventures, Invus Financial Advisors, Prospect Venture Partners, Arch Venture Partners, hedge funds BBT Capital Management/Apothecray Capital, Partner Funds Management, and VC fund Altitude Life Science Ventures.
Kythera previously raised $30m in each of its series B and C rounds, in July 2006 and May 2008 respectively, from a similar pool of venture capital backers, although the academic venturing unit the UCLA Venture fund and WS Investments, the corporate venturing unit for law firm Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati, both featured in the earlier rounds.
Kythera develops biopharmaceutical prescription products for the aesthetic market – essentially for cosmetic purposes – with its lead program, ATX-101, due to start US Phase 3 clinical trials in the next few months. ATX-101 is a synthetic drug that can be injected to reduce small volumes of fat with little or no anaesthetic necessary.
Kythera signed a licensing deal worth a potential $373m with Intendis, the dermatology unit of Germany-based chemical and healthcare conglomerate Bayer, in August 2010, which included a $43m up front payment.