Cambridge, MA, October 1, 2003 - GenPath Pharmaceuticals, Inc., a drug discovery
and development company focused on the treatment of cancer and other diseases,
announced today that it has raised $42.7 million in a Series B
financing.
The round was led by Flagship Ventures, and joined by Highland
Capital Partners, Oxford Biosciences and Lotus Biosciences as well as private
investors from Europe. Series A investors in the company also participated in
the round, including MPM Capital, Venrock Associates, Prospect Venture Partners,
Greylock, and private investors Kenneth E. Weg, former Vice Chairman of
Bristol-Myers Squibb, and A. Grant Heidrich, III. As part of this financing
round, Muzammil Mansuri, PhD of Flagship Ventures and Robert Higgins of Highland
Capital Partners have joined the GenPath board.
"We are very gratified
that the enormous progress that the company has made since our labs opened 15
months ago is fully recognized in this Series B financing. The size of this
round will allow the company to move to our next phase of aggressively
converting our discovery technologies into clinical candidates. Beyond the
amount, we are very proud in extending our high quality investors group to
include Flagship, Highland and Oxford Biosciences," said Tuan Ha-Ngoc, President
and CEO of GenPath.
"GenPath represents the combination of accomplished
leadership, scientific excellence and commercial potential that is found only in
the most successful Biotech companies," commented Muz Mansuri of Flagship
Ventures who led the Series B financing round. "We look forward to building on
this foundation and realizing GenPath's transformative potential."
"We are excited about the progress GenPath has made to date in discovering and
developing innovative cancer therapeutics," said Robert Higgins, managing
general partner with Highland. "We look forward to being part of a team of
accomplished managers, scientists, and investors centered on building the
leading developer of cancer treatment products."
GenPath is focused on
the discovery and development of drugs that target gene products critical for
the maintenance and recurrence of established cancers. The company utilizes a
novel approach by applying recent breakthroughs from leading cancer research
centers. Central to this approach is the use of inducible, spontaneous cancer
models that more faithfully reproduce the human disease and make it possible to
discover genes involved in tumor maintenance and recurrence for the first time.
About GenPath
GenPath employs powerful, proprietary
genetic model systems to discover and develop drugs against essential targets
critical to the origin, maintenance, and spread of malignant tumors. This novel,
high-throughput in-vivo pathway technology platform enables the rapid functional
prioritization of only the most relevant drug targets, thus dramatically
improving the efficiency of drug discovery. In addition, when coupled with
high-throughput genomics and bioinformatics, this platform is designed to
enhance drug development through the identification of novel biomarkers for both
exposure and efficacy endpoints to guide clinical development. Beyond oncology,
GenPath's technologies are broadly applicable to other disease states, including
cardiovascular, metabolic and neurodegenerative disorders.
GenPath is a
privately held company located in Cambridge, MA. For more information, please
visit the company's website at
www.genpathpharma.com.
About Flagship Ventures
Founded in 1999, Flagship Ventures is an
early-stage venture capital firm focused on creating, financing, and building
companies in the life science, information technology and communications
sectors. With a team of 21 professionals, Flagship currently invests from $400
million in funds raised in 2000.
About Highland Capital Partners
Highland Capital Partners is an early-stage venture firm
focused on building companies in the communications, information technology and
healthcare markets. Founded in 1988, Highland has invested in and worked to
create such firms as Altiga Networks, Ask Jeeves, Aspect Medical Systems, Avid
Technology, CheckFree, EXACT Sciences, GenVec, HighGround Systems, Lycos,
MapQuest, Ocular Networks, Odyssey Healthcare, PRAECIS PHARMACEUTICALS, Sybase
and WebLine Communications. For more information, visit Highland's web site at
www.hcp.com.
About Oxford Biosciences
Oxford Bioscience Partners (OBP) is a life science
venture capital firm that provides equity financing and management assistance to
start-up and early-stage companies in the bioscience and healthcare industries.
The General Partners of OBP currently manage venture funds with combined
committed capital of more than $800 million.
For further information,
contact:
Tuan Ha-Ngoc
617-250-5969
thangoc@genpathpharma.com