US-based biopharmaceutical company Second Genome raised $42.6m yesterday in a series B round co-led by pharmaceutical firms Pfizer and Roche, which invested through their respective Pfizer Venture Investments and Roche Venture Fund units.
Medical research organisation Mayo Clinic also took part in the round, as did Digitalis Ventures, Adveq, LifeForce Capital, MBL Venture Capital, Advanced Technology Ventures, Morgenthaler Ventures, Seraph Group and angel investor Matthew Winkler.
Founded in 2009, Second Genome is developing drugs for a range of inflammatory bowel and metabolic diseases, using a platform based on research at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.
The money will fund an expansion of the platform across a range of indications, and will also support a human proof-of-concept clinical trial of the a drug candidate for inflammation and pain in ulcerative colitis.
Elaine Jones, executive director of Pfizer Venture Investments, and Carole Nuechterlein, head of Roche Venture Fund, will join Second Genome’s board of directors.
Second Genome has raised $59m to date, according to its latest press release. It closed a $11.5m series A round in 2013 backed by Advanced Technology Ventures, Morgenthaler, Seraph, Wavepoint Ventures, Matthew Winkler and company founder Corey Goodman.
The company, then operating as PhyloTech, also raised $1.2m in seed funding in 2010 from Seraph Group, Wavepoint Ventures and assorted angel investors.