Cerulean Pharma, a lung cancer biotechnology company formerly known as Tempo Pharmaceuticals, has raised $24m in its series C round with Lilly Ventures as lead investor.
Lilly Ventures, the corporate venturing unit of drugs company Eli Lilly, was joined in the consortium by venture capital firms Polaris Venture Partners, Venrock, Lux Capital and Bessemer Venture Partners, property group Alexandria Real Estate Equities, and angel investor William Rastetter, the former executive chairman of biotech peer Biogen Idec and part of Venrock.
Steve Hall, a partner at Lilly Ventures, has joined the board of the designer and developer of nanopharmaceuticals for non-small cell lung cancer.
Hall said: "Cerulean’s nanopharmaceutical platform has enabled new product candidates that demonstrate dramatic pre-clinical efficacy in multiple disease models. We are excited to join the existing investors as Cerulean advances CRLX101 and additional candidates through clinical development."
Cerulean raised $10m in its extended series B round in July last year, having originally raised $8.1m in January 2008 for its second round of funding. Its $12.1m series A round closed in May 2007.