Symphogen, a Denmark-based developer of antibody therapeutics to treat cancer and disease, has added €41m ($54m) to its previous round.
Novo, a $20bn quasi-corporate venturing investment company wholly owned by the Novo Nordisk Foundation, and local pension fund PKA each invested €20m, with Danica Pension co-investing.
Henrik Gürtler, chief executive of Novo, said: “It is important to understand the significance of the investments of Danica Pension and PKA.
“This is Danica Pension’s first active investment in Symphogen, where they are participating independently rather than as a limited partner in a venture fund.
“Similarly, PKA, which first invested in Symphogen less than two years ago, has significantly increased its commitment to the company in this round.
“This is somewhat unusual in today’s venture investing arena. Both groups provide an important endorsement of the company’s focus, its ability to make strategic decisions and of course, to move programs through the clinic.”
In January 2011, Symphogen raised €100m in Europe’s largest medical venture round and broadly double its previous equity funding; of which the second of three tranches was drawn in April last year.
Novo and PKA also backed this 2011 round, which also included venture capital firm Essex Woodlands Health Ventures.
Essex Woodlands previously led Symphogen’s €33m round in February 2009.
In January 2007, Symphogen raised €5m from Netherlands-based venture capital fund Gilde Healthcare Partners to take its then total amount of money raised to $85m and its earlier investors included Japan’s Takeda, Scandinavian Life Science Venture, LD Pensions and Vaekstfonden, as well as Essex Woodlands and Novo.
In September, Symphogen struck a €495m deal with Germany-based Merck KGaA for its lead anti-cancer drug, Sym004. In conjunction with the latest financing, Anthony Tolcher, president and co-founder of Start, one of the world’s largest clinical Phase I and early drug development operations in cancer medicine with three locations in the US, Spain and China, joins Symphogen’s board.