Avitide, Inc., a biotech company dedicated to the rapid discovery and development of on-demand affinity purification solutions for the biopharmaceutical industry, today announced the closing of its Series C financing. NeoMed Management led the financing, with participation from existing investors Polaris Partners, OrbiMed Advisors, SV Life Sciences and Borealis Ventures. Claudio Nessi (NeoMed) joined Avitide's Board of Directors. The proceeds will accelerate commercialization of Avitide's on-demand affinity purification platform, with a focus on biopharmaceutical drug products that include an array of molecules such as proteins, enzymes, antibody-based therapeutics, recombinant vaccines, gene therapies and biosimilars. The financing is expected to take the company to profitability within the next two years.

Avitide's technology enables the company's partners to rapidly discover and develop robust, scalable affinity purification solutions for the most challenging biopharmaceutical products. The Avitide approach reduces program risks and radically improves the existing clinical timeframes and economics of commercial bioprocess development and manufacturing.

'The industry is slowly coming to view the Avitide technology as a critical component in the rapid development and manufacturing of protein-based therapeutics,' commented Terry McGuire, of Polaris Partners.

'At first, we were skeptical that a highly conservative industry would adopt a new purification technology so quickly, but once we saw the data on partnered programs, we were convinced that Avitide had something transformative. We are very excited to become a part of the Avitide story at such an interesting time,' added Claudio Nessi, of NeoMed Management.

'The era of unpredictable development times, low yields, high costs and low product purity is over - there now is a technical solution to the bio-separation problem, and Avitide is the leader in that space' said Professor Tillman Gerngross, Avitide's co-founder and chairman of the board, who oversaw the Series C financing.

'Avitide has made considerable advances with its platform and is now able to consistently deliver highly selective affinity resins to our partners in a three-month timeframe. We acknowledge the large impact Avitide's technology will have in the biopharmaceutical manufacturing industry, particularly for companies with diverse program portfolios. We now look forward to building upon our existing partnerships and establishing new relationships to deliver a higher technical standard in biopharmaceutical manufacturing,' added Kevin Isett, Avitide's CEO and co-founder.

About Avitide, Inc.
Avitide develops and delivers on-demand, molecule-specific biopharmaceutical affinity purification technologies with an industry-leading three-month service. The Avitide service and technology delivers an exclusive and proprietary affinity resin that enables our partners to achieve faster bioprocess development timelines, reduced program risk, and decreased cost of manufacture by providing cost-effective, highly specific affinity purification solutions. Avitide delivers high-resolution affinity resins that can select and enrich for critical drug product profile attributes important for safety, potency and efficacy, while providing improved line-of-sight, platform operations and predictable commercial scalability. For more information, visit www.avitide.com.

About NeoMed Management
NeoMed Management is an investment firm exclusively focused on investments in the healthcare industry. Founded in 1997, NeoMed has established five funds to date. NeoMed invests in emerging companies with outstanding growth prospects. These companies are developing innovative and proprietary medical products that address substantial market opportunities in the pharmaceutical, medical device and diagnostics industries. NeoMed has a multi-stage investment approach and invests at all stages of development from start-up to later stage growth financings. NeoMed's experienced investment team works closely with entrepreneurs and a broader industry network to support the growth of its portfolio companies.

About Polaris Partners
Polaris Partners is a partnership of experienced private equity investors, operating executives and entrepreneurs. The firm's mission is to identify, invest in and partner with seed, early stage, and middle market businesses with exceptional promise and help them grow into market-leading companies. The firm has over $3.5 billion under management, more than 20 investment professionals, and current investments in more than 100 companies.

About OrbiMed Advisors
OrbiMed is the world's largest life sciences and healthcare-dedicated investment firm, with approximately $14 billion in assets under management. OrbiMed has successfully invested in over 140 companies across a wide range of therapeutic categories and stages of development. OrbiMed's investment team includes approximately 60 experienced professionals with backgrounds in science, medicine, industry, finance and law. OrbiMed's professionals work together using a collaborative, team-oriented approach to support our portfolio companies, which has earned OrbiMed a reputation as a capital provider of choice for life sciences companies of all stages.

About SV Life Sciences
SV Life Sciences is a leading international life sciences venture capital firm. The SVLS team manages five private venture capital funds with approximately $2 billion of capital under management. The firm employs a diversified strategy within life sciences in order to selectively capitalize on an expanding opportunity in biotech, medical devices and health-care services.

About Borealis Ventures
Borealis Ventures partners closely with exceptional entrepreneurs from the earliest stages to build market-defining companies in the life sciences and information technology sectors. Borealis has been the most active venture investor in New Hampshire over the past decade, and its latest fund, the Borealis Granite Fund, is the first venture capital fund dedicated to NH-based opportunities.