Acceleron Pharma, Inc., a biopharmaceutical company developing protein therapeutics for cancer and orphan diseases, today announced it raised a $30M private financing. Celgene, one of Acceleron's strategic partners, and all other existing investors participated in this financing. The proceeds will be used to expand and advance Acceleron's clinical stage pipeline and to continue to support its highly productive research engine.

"This fortifies Acceleron's solid financial position and provides the Company with the resources to continue to advance and expand our robust clinical and preclinical pipeline", said John Knopf, Ph.D., Chief Executive Officer of Acceleron. "We're especially pleased with Celgene's commitment to Acceleron as we jointly develop several promising products for the treatment of anemia."

In conjunction with this financing, George Golumbeski, Senior Vice President of Corporate Development of Celgene, has joined the Acceleron Board of Directors.

About Acceleron
Acceleron is a privately-held biopharmaceutical company committed to discover, develop, manufacture and commercialize novel protein therapeutics for orphan diseases and cancer. Acceleron's scientific approach takes advantage of its unique insight to discover first-in-class therapies based on the TGF-β protein superfamily. Acceleron utilizes proven biotherapeutic technologies and capitalizes on the company's internal GMP manufacturing capability to advance its therapeutic programs rapidly and efficiently. The investors in Acceleron include Advanced Technology Ventures, Alkermes, Avalon Ventures, Bessemer Ventures, Celgene, Flagship Ventures, MPM BioEquities, OrbiMed Advisors, Polaris Ventures, QVT Financial, Sutter Hill Ventures and Venrock.