Jul 9, 2013

U3 Pharma Raises Euro 13.25 (US$14.75) Million in a Second Round Financing... -- re> MARTINSRIED, Germany, Sept. 15 /PRNewswire/ -- U3 Pharma Raises Euro 13.25 (US$14.75) Million in a Second Round Financing Led By Atlas Venture and LCF Rothschild Venture Partners Atlas Venture's Joel Besse and LCF Rothschild's Michele Ollier Join Axel Ullrich, Jean Deleage and Karsten Henco on Supervisory Board MARTINSRIED, Germany, Sept. 15 /PRNewswire/ -- U3 Pharma AG announced today the closing of a euro 13.25 (US$14.75) million second round financing co-led by Atlas Venture (London) and LCF Rothschild Venture Partners (Paris) and including the BioMedical Sciences Investment Fund of Singapore (Singapore). All three are new investors in U3 Pharma. Alta Partners (San Francisco) continued its ongoing support and commitment to the future of the company through a significant investment in this round. Existing investors BioM (Munich) and Medicis Venture Management (Munich) as well as current private investors also participated in the round. In conjunction with the financing, Joel Besse, Atlas Venture and Michele Ollier of LCF Rothschild Venture Partners have joined U3 Pharma's Supervisory Board. "Closing this financing is strong testament to the commitment and faith that the U3 Pharma team has in their company. These attributes, combined with exciting product candidates based on proven and cutting-edge science, attracted Atlas Venture to participate in the financing," stated Joel Besse. "We look forward to supporting the growth of the company, which is a strong representation of the innovative biotechnology continuing to emerge from Germany. " "We feel that U3 Pharma has pulled together a great team that is building a company on solid fundamentals," noted LCF Rothschild Venture Partners' Michele Ollier. "Under the guidance of Mike Rothe, U3 Pharma's Chief Scientific Officer, the company's broadly applicable science and technology platform is generating both antibody and small molecule drugs and is therefore poised to capitalize on two product areas which are revolutionizing the way that cancer and other diseases are treated. " The proceeds will be used to advance several anticancer candidate drugs through IND and into clinical development. U3 Pharma is developing therapeutic products based on targeting specific components of cellular transduction systems involved in diseases such as cancer and other hyper-proliferative diseases. In addition, the financing will be used to support U3 Pharma's leading position among the next generation of signal transduction companies by filing and acquiring complementary intellectual property, performing continued business development activities and engaging in general corporate expansion. "We are delighted to have supported U3 Pharma since its inception and particularly helping to guide the company through the current difficult financing environment," said Jean Deleage of Alta Partners. "The successful closing of this new round in which additional new institutional investors have been brought into the company is a testament to the outstanding progress shown by U3 Pharma in its innovative science and corporate development. " "This financing brings considerable complementary international expertise and reach from our new investors. This combined with the solid foundations already in place will allow U3 Pharma to rapidly advance our product development programs," said Ed Stuart, Chief Business Officer of U3 Pharma. U3 Pharma is advancing several antibody and small molecule product candidates towards clinical development based on disrupting specific signal transduction pathways. These pathways are one of the most important mechanisms through which cells communicate processes such as proliferation, growth, metabolic regulation and survival. U3 Pharma is collaborating with Abgenix for therapeutic antibodies and EvotecOAI for the discovery and development of small molecule drugs. "The completion of this financing round is very exciting as we are in the position whereby we can capitalize on the advances that have been made in the translation of premier science into products that will benefit patients and address the significant unmet medical need associated with cancer," commented Prof. Axel Ullrich, founder of U3 Pharma and Director, Max Planck Institute for Biochemistry. About U3 Pharma U3 Pharma AG is a biopharmaceutical company focused on the creation of novel therapeutic products that specifically target key components of cellular signal transduction systems that are involved in major important human diseases such as cancer. The company has licensed a portfolio of validated drug targets from the Max Planck Society based on pioneering research by Prof. Axel Ullrich. These drug targets have been used to discover a portfolio of therapeutic antibodies and small molecules candidates. In addition, U3 Pharma has created a second-generation functional genomics platform, TASC, which mimics the progression of a tumor cell as it progresses towards its fully malignant cancerous state. U3 Pharma is privately held and based in Martinsried, Munich, Germany. For additional information, please visit www.u3pharma.com. SOURCE U3 Pharma AG