DENMARK - Santaris Pharma raises EUR 40m from VC syndicate

The investment in Santaris Pharma has been made by an international syndicate of life science venture investors, led by ABN AMRO Capital Life Sciences of the Netherlands. The syndicate also includes Global Life Science Ventures of Germany and Switzerland, Vækstfonden of Denmark, and SPEF Venture of France. These new shareholders contributed approximately 50% of the round and Martien van Osch from ABN AMRO Capital and Dr Holger Reithinger from GLSV will join the Board of Directors of Santaris Pharma. The remaining investment was made by existing shareholders, including BankInvest, Novo Ventures, LD Pensions, Dansk Kapitalanlæg and Dansk Erhvervsinvestering all of Denmark, InnovationsKapital of Sweden and Teknoinvest of Norway.

The proceeds of the financing will be used primarily to fund continued development of Santaris Pharma’s portfolio of innovative drug candidates based on LNA, including SPC 2996, an RNA Antagonist to Bcl-2, currently in an international Phase I/II clinical trial in patients with the blood cancer, chronic lymphocytic leukaemia. The funds will enable the start of clinical studies with other RNA Antagonists and the further development of Santaris Pharma’s world-leading platform for LNA-based human therapeutics.

The EUR 40m aggregate investment includes the conversion to equity of approximately EUR 8m of convertible debentures, invested by existing shareholders in 2005. Cash investment in the financing is structured in two equal tranches, the first received by the company now and the second to be received in 12 months time. The company expects that the funds will be sufficient to finance operations until approximately mid-2008. Prior to the end of this period, Santaris Pharma expects to raise further financing via an initial public offering on a recognised stock exchange or by another appropriate transaction.

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• Topics
• Expansion
• Nordics