Monday, March 10, 2008

Big names back stealthy pharma startup Centaurus

By Ryan McBride

A syndicate of blue-chip venture firms and big biotechnology companies -- including Biogen Idec Inc. -- have quietly invested in a new Cambridge biotech focused on antibody drugs.

The biotech, Centaurus Pharmaceuticals Inc., is operating under the radar in the Cambridge offices of one of its investors, Clarus Ventures. Clarus revealed the biotech was in its portfolio of investments Feb. 25, in an announcement about the firm's new $660 million venture fund.

Clarus has invested in Centaurus along with other investors including New York venture firm Venrock, Cambridge-based Biogen, and MedImmune Ventures Inc., a biotech investment arm of British drug maker AstraZeneca PLC. Centaurus raised $7.7 million in Series A venture capital last month, according to a U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission filing.

Centaurus is among several developers of antibody drugs in New England that have grabbed interest from big drug makers and venture funds. Monoclonal antibodies, cloned from antibodies that attack pathogens, are the fastest growing class of drugs on the global market, with $20 billion in annual sales and yearly revenue increases of 14 percent projected until 2012, according to Datamonitor PLC, a London pharmaceutical market research firm.

The huge antibody market has helped make startups in the field a hot commodity. In early 2007, British drug giant GlaxoSmithKline PLC paid $454 million to acquire antibody developer Domantis Ltd., which had offices in Waltham. And pharma heavyweight Merck & Co. Inc., based in New Jersey, bought startup GlycoFi Inc., of Lebanon, N.H., in May 2006 for more than $400 million.

Centaurus hasn't revealed specifics about its technology, but public documents show the startup took a license from The Rockefeller University, in New York. Jeffrey Ravetch, a professor at Rockefeller, a leading biomedical research center, is listed as a shareholder in Centaurus. He is an expert on so-called immunoglobulin antibodies, which have been found to reduce inflammation caused by such disorders as arthritis and asthma.

Rockefeller's tech transfer office declined to comment on the license to Centaurus, and it could not be confirmed whether the license was linked to Ravetch's antibody research.

John Ripple, CEO of Centaurus, said the startup is not ready to talk to the press. (Biogen, a Centaurus investor, in early 2007 acquired the last biotech where Ripple served as chief executive, Syntonix Pharmaceuticals Inc., of Waltham.) Nicholas Galakatos, managing director of Clarus, said that Centaurus was focused on antibodies, but declined to provide details.

It also appears that Centaurus has changed management since launching last spring. Massachusetts records show that the biotech was formed in April 2007 with different managers and directors than those listed in SEC filings, indicating a change in leadership may have occurred. Ripple was not listed as CEO in the state document. Executives noted in the documents didn't return messages before press time.