US-based Moderna Therapeutics yesterday closed the largest financing round ever raised by a private biopharmaceutical company, raising $450m from investors including pharmaceutical firms AstraZeneca and Alexion Pharmaceuticals.
Viking Global Investors, Invus, RA Capital Management and Wellington Management Company all participated in the round as new investors, while undisclosed existing backers also took part.
Moderna is developing an in vivo drug technology called messenger RNA therapeutics that produces human proteins, antibodies and protein constructs in cells in order to combat diseases previously untreatable with drugs.
The cash will be put towards advancing Moderna’s drug discovery and development programmes across a range of modalities and areas. This could be partly achieved through the incubation of specialist companies such as Onkaido Therapeutics, which is using Moderna’s technology as the basis for research on oncology drugs.
The company has now raised more than $950m through equity funding and commercial partnerships since it was incubated by Flagship Ventures in 2010, including $135m from a round that closed in January 2014 and a $40m series A that closed in late 2012.
AstraZeneca’s participation came on the back of a partnership agreement with Moderna that included a $240m upfront payment.