Belgium-based liver disease therapy developer Promethera Biosciences secured €9.3m ($11.5m) in convertible bond financing yesterday from investors including packaging system manufacturer Shibuya Corporation.
Shinsei Corporate Investment, the corporate venturing arm of financial services firm Shinsei Bank, also participated in the issue, as did unnamed existing investors.
Founded in 2009, Promethera Biosciences develops cell-based therapies for liver diseases. Its lead asset, HepaStem, has entered phase 2 clinical trials for acute-on-chronic liver failure and non-alcoholic fatty liver disease, also known as non-alcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH).
The capital will fund Promethera’s pipeline as it conducts further research on liver diseases with unmet medical needs. It recently acquired biopharmaceutical developer Baliopharm and plans to combine one of the company’s antibody candidates with its own therapies to better tackle NASH and other liver diseases.
Pharmaceutical firm Boehringer Ingelheim, tissue engineering researcher LifeLiver, diversified conglomerate Mitsui and SMS Investments, a subsidiary of industrial engineering firm SMS Group, all contributed to Promethera’s last round, an $11m series C in late 2016.
Mitsubishi UFJ Capital, the venture capital arm of Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group, Cell Innovation Partners, Fund+, Vesalius Biocapital and the Wallonia government-backed SRIW also participated in the 2016 round.
Only $6.7m of the series C funding was newly raised, according to Fierce Biotech, with the remainder previously included in an earlier $25.4m fundraise backed by SMS, Boehringer, Vesalius and Belgium federal government-owned holding company SFPI.
Investors including Boehringer Ingelheim, Mitsui, pharmaceutical company Shire and semiconductor material manufacturer ATMI had previously supplied €28m for Promethera across rounds in 2009 and 2012.