Covagen extends series-B with Baxter investment

The firm had raised an initial CHF 42m in December from a Gimv-led consortium comprising new backer Ascent Biomedical Ventures and existing investors Novartis Venture Fund, Edmond de Rothschild Investment Partners (EdRip), Seroba Kernel Life Sciences, Ventech and MP Healthcare Venture Management (MPH).

The financing supplied in the series-B round comes with an option for Covagen to secure an additional CHF 14m from the investor consortium.

The increase in Covagen's series-B round will go towards the clinical development of the company's FynomAb COVA322 product.

Previous funding
Covagen secured early-stage funding from Ventech, MPH and Novartis in November 2009. The following January, EdRip supplied the company with €5m in exchange for a minority stake, according to unquote" data.

In November 2010, Seroba led a €4.8m (CHF 6.3m) series-A round for the company, with participation from existing backers EdRip, MPH, Novartis and Ventech.

Company
Covagen was established in 2007 when it span out from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology. Headquartered in Zurich, the company employs 26 staff.

Covagen develops therapeutics designed for the treatment of cancer and inflammatory diseases. Its FynomAb COVA322 product is expected to enter first-in-human clinical trials in the first half of this year.

FynomAb COVA322 is a bispecific tumour necrosis factor (TNF)/interleukin 17A (IL-17A) inhibitor. The candidate is being designed for use in the treatment of inflammatory diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis and psoriatic arthritis.

People
Julian Bertschinger is the CEO of Covagen and founded the business alongside CSO Dragan Grabulovski. Geeta Vemuri is the vice president and head of Baxter Ventures.

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