Pfizer’s corporate venturing unit Pfizer Venture Investments (PVI) has helped pharmaceutical company Mersana Therapeutics raise $27m in Series A-1 funding in a round led by venture firm New Enterprise Associates (NEA).
Pfizer and NEA were joined by previous investors Fidelity Investments’ pharmaceutical investment arm Fidelity Biosciences, as well as venture firms ProQuest Investments, Harris and Harris Group, Rho Ventures.
The proceeds from the investment will be used to develop Mersana’s antibody-drug combinations by using its biodegradable-polymer system, called Fleximer, previously used to combine Fleximers and small-molecule drugs. Mersana is looking to move more into the antibody-drug field as it has been showing strong improvement recently, and is attracting interest from numerous companies.
All of Mersana’s previously existing investors contributed to a $21m venture round in 2005, and were joined seed and early-stage healthcare investor Pure Tech Ventures, Lansing Brown Investments, and the Cape Family Fund which was established by biotechnology industry veteran Dr Ronald Cape.
Mersana gained $4m in a venture round in April 2012 backed by private investors, bringing its venture funding total to $52m.
Also announced as joining Mersana were NEA general partner David Mott and principal at NEA Sara Nayeem, M.D., who will take up the positions of chairman and director respectively. Mersana was the first biopharma investment for the $2.6bn NEA 14 fund.
“It’s an honor to welcome David and Sara to the Mersana Board,” said Nicholas Bacopoulos, president and chief executive of Mersana in a statement.
He added: “As former CEO of MedImmune [AstraZeneca’s corporate venturing unit], David brings tremendous experience that will be critical for the future success of Mersana, and Sara adds important medical and business expertise to our Board. Pfizer Venture’s investment in Mersana reflects Pfizer’s history and continued strong interest in the antibody-drug conjugate field. Having NEA and Pfizer Venture Investments join our syndicate highlights the extraordinary potential of Mersana’s ADC technology and our team. The continued support of Fidelity Biosciences, ProQuest Investments, Rho Ventures and Harris and Harris Group also highlights Mersana’s promise.”
Antibody-drug combinations are generally employed as cancer-fighting drugs. They are essentially the bioscience equivalent of a homing missile that targets cancerous tumours, where the antibodies are the guidance system and the cell-killing drugs are the payload. Mersana hopes to use the funds to develop antibody-drug combinations that haven’t been possible before.