Venture Capital News: REGENXBIO Secures $70.5M in Series D
2015-05-20
ROCKVILLE, MD, Leading biotechnology company in gene therapy, today announced the successful completion of a heavily oversubscribed $70.5 million Series D financing.
REGENXBIO Inc., a leading biotechnology company in gene therapy, today announced the successful completion of a heavily oversubscribed $70.5 million Series D financing. The Series D brings the total capital raised since inception to more than $110 million.
The Series D was led by new investor Vivo Capital and existing investors Venrock and Brookside Capital. Additional investors participating in the financing include a fund managed by Janus Capital Management LLC; Jennison Associates LLC on behalf of clients; Perceptive Advisors, LLC; QVT Financial LP; Tourbillon Global Ventures; Sectoral Asset Management; Cormorant Asset Management, LLC; Foresite Capital Management, LLC; RTW Investments and two undisclosed blue-chip investment funds. Existing investors, including Deerfield Management and Fidelity Biosciences, also participated in the financing.
For the transaction, Chardan Capital Markets, LLC served as the sole placement agent and Gunderson Dettmer served as legal advisor to the company.
'We are pleased that this group of leading biotech investors recognizes the potential of our NAV Technology for achieving the goal of getting meaningful treatments to patients using gene therapy,' said Ken Mills, President and CEO of REGENXBIO. 'With this financing, we are well positioned to support our lead programs through initial clinical studies and to establish a number of new clinical candidates in order to grow our pipeline of NAV Technology-based treatments in development.'
In association with the financing, Dr. Edgar Engleman, Managing Partner of Vivo Capital, has joined REGENXBIO's board of directors. Albert Cha, M.D., Ph.D., Managing Partner of Vivo Capital, said, 'We are excited to be investing in what we believe to be the leading gene therapy company, as demonstrated not only by the strength of its intellectual property, domain expertise and knowhow, but also by the breadth and depth of its licensees and partners.'
REGENXBIO plans to use the proceeds to advance its lead programs through clinical development, build out its clinical and manufacturing infrastructure, expand its team and add to its current pipeline of innovative AAV gene therapies. REGENXBIO is currently leveraging its proprietary NAVĀ® Technology to develop treatments for central nervous system (CNS) and retinal diseases - such as Hurler Syndrome (MPS I), Hunter Syndrome (MPS II) and wet age-related macular degeneration - as well as other diseases in which gene therapy can make a meaningful difference in patients' lives. In addition to its own programs, REGENXBIO has granted 16 commercial licenses for the development of NAV Technology-based treatments.
Bong Koh, M.D., Partner at Venrock, commented, 'Many of the most exciting gene therapy companies today are licensees or spinouts of REGENXBIO's core vectors. It speaks not only to the company's dominant IP position, but also the significant clinical advantage of its vectors. Furthermore, with strong leadership under CEO Ken Mills and scientific insight by world-renowned gene therapy expert Jim Wilson, REGENXBIO is poised to significantly unleash the value of these assets by developing its own proprietary pipeline. As such, through its NAV Technology licensees and proprietary programs, REGENXBIO likely represents the broadest and deepest gene therapy pipeline today.'
About REGENXBIO
REGENXBIO Inc. is the leading next-generation AAV gene therapy company, developing a new class of personalized therapies based on its proprietary NAVĀ® Technology platform for a range of severe diseases with serious unmet needs. NAV Technology includes novel AAV vectors AAV7, AAV8, AAV9, and AAVrh10. REGENXBIO has enabled leading global partners including Dimension Therapeutics, Baxter Healthcare, AveXis, Audentes Therapeutics, Voyager Therapeutics, Fondazione Telethon, Lysogene, Esteve, and AAVLife to use its NAV Technology.
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