MiRagen Therapeutics, a US-based biopharmaceutical firm to treat muscle disease, has raised $20m in its series B round from a consortium including Amgen Ventures, the corporate venturing division of biotechnology corporation Amgen.
Remeditex Ventures, a US-based venture capital (VC) firm set up by former executives at Hunt Petroleum and technology transfer professionals at Texas University’s UT Southwestern Medical Center, led MiRagen’s round, and was joined by peers Atlas Venture, Boulder Ventures and Broadview Ventures, as well as Amgen.
Miragen picked up an initial $4m of funding for its 2009 series B round, which also included charitable foundation Peierls Foundation.
William Marshall, executive president of MiRagen, said: "This funding strengthens our ability to advance novel microRNA-based therapeutics [master regulators of gene expression] that may address areas of high unmet medical need and improve the lives of patients."
The round followed an $8m series A round the year before in which VCs Atlas Venture and Boulder Ventures were the investors. Miragen was founded in 2007.
In October, France-based pharmaceutical company Les Labartoires Servier, backed by biotechnology company Amgen, signed a research collaboration agreement with Miragen Therapeutics to advance three drug candidates for treatment of cardiovascular disease.
Miragen will receive $45m upfront from Servier, as well as research and milestone payments in the next three years which could potentially total $352m while Servier will obtain worldwide rights for the drugs, excluding in Japan and the US, in return. The firms estimate that possible milestone for the three drugs could collectively reach as much as $1bn.
Separately, George Rathmann, former chief executive of Amgen and a pioneer of biotech, has died at the age of 84.
Rathmann previously worked at Abbott Laboratories before joining Amgen, the largest independent biotech company, and agreeing the $5m corporate venturing investment by Abbott that generated a $250m return.