Protagonist Therapeutics, a US-based drugs company, has raised $14m in its series B round from a consortium led by new investor Johnson & Johnson Development Corporation (JJDC), the corporate venturing unit of the eponymous healthcare company.
Protagonist’s A round investors, Lilly Ventures, the corporate venturing unit of drugs group Eli Lilly, and venture capital firm Starfish Ventures, reinvested in the latest round.
Lilly Ventures led a $9m series A round in September 2006 into Protagonist alongside Queensland BioCapital Funds, part of the local state pension fund, Queensland Investment Company, and Australia-based venture capital firm Starfish Ventures.
Asish Xavier, vice-president of venture investments at JJDC, will join the Protagonist board as a director.
Dinesh Patel, executive president of Protagonist, said: “This participation by JJDC as a new investor, along with the continued support from major existing investors Lilly Ventures and Starfish Ventures creates a strong syndicate and adds a new dimension in the growth of Protagonist. The new financing will serve to support R&D efforts for the internal programs focused on well-differentiated applications of oral peptides to novel targets for diseases where neither small molecules nor biologics can currently offer a good solution.”
Protagonist is a spin-out of Australia-based University of Queensland’s Institute of Molecular Biosciences and has discovery operations in Menlo Park, California and Brisbane, Queensland.
Separately, Joel Krikston left JJDC last month to become president of RedLine Advisors.