Healthcare-focused investment bank Leerink Swann has joined the consortium investing $101m in the series B round for US-based biopharmaceutical company Tesaro.
Venture capital firm Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers led the B round as a new investor while peer New Enterprise Associates invested the most amount having provided, with portfolio company management, $20m in Tesaro’s A round in May last year.
The other new investors are venture investors and mutual fund managers InterWest Partners, T Rowe Price, Pappas Ventures, Oracle Partners and Deerfield Management.
Tesaro is focused on cancer-related products having licensed two programmes from Opko and Amgen since December.
It was co-founded by former executives of MGI Pharma, an oncology and acute-care focused biopharmaceutical company that Eisai acquired in 2008 for $3.9bn.
Investment banks can use corporate venturing as an access card into companies preparing to carry out deals or preparing to float on a stock exchange.