Novo Ventures, the investment arm of pharmaceutical firm Novo, co-led a $58.5m series B round for US-based drug developer Ra Pharmaceuticals yesterday with RA Capital Management and Lightstone Ventures.
The round also featured Novartis Venture Fund and Amgen Ventures, the respective corporate venturing subsidiaries of pharmaceutical companies Novartis and Amgen, as well as Rock Springs Capital, Limulus Venture Partners, New Enterprise Associates (NEA) and Morgenthaler Ventures.
Ra Pharma’s Extreme Diversity platform has been built to generate peptide-like molecules with the diversity and specificity of antibodies that could potentially treat life-threatening disorders.
The cash gained from the “significantly oversubscribed” series B round will fund the generation of human proof of concept data for RA101495, Ra Pharma’s lead molecule.
RA101495 is expected to enter Phase 1 clinical studies for paroxysmal nocturnal hemoglobinuria (PNH), a life threatening blood disease, in late 2015.
Founded in 2008, Ra Pharma emerged from stealth in 2012 with $27m in series A financing from investors including Novartis Venture Fund, Amgen Ventures, NEA and Morgenthaler Ventures.