Thursday, November 20, 2008

Adimab’s antibody discoveries attract more funding

By Marc Songini

Antibody discovery startup Adimab Inc. closed its Series C financing, which will enable the company to enter its discovery phase.

On Thursday, Lebanon, N.H.-based Adimab announced the transaction, which involved existing investors Polaris Venture Partners and SV Life Sciences, as well as new partners Orbimed Advisors and Borealis Ventures.

The company had received its second series financing back in March of this year. That cash had been intended to carry the firm through 2009. This new round will continue on that effort.

The exact cash amount of the Series C round remained unclear. “We don’t disclose the details,” said Tillman Gerngross, CEO of Adimab. However, he said the valuation was twice that of its last round. The money will be spent on speeding up the processes for developing the technology and sponsoring multiple parallel antibody discovery platforms. Currently, the company can take an antigen and create a large panel of high affinity, fully human antibodies in a few weeks.

“We feel we have the premier antibody discovery platform at this point,” Gerngross said. “And, we’re going to spend the next couple of quarters validating that.” The fact that existing partners reinvested in the company, and added two new partners came on board, demonstrates the soundness of the concept, he said.

Adimab isn’t Gerngross’s first venture. An engineering professor at Dartmouth College, he founded the biotech company GlycoFi Inc., which he sold a couple of years ago to Merck & Co. Inc. for over $400 million.

In July 2007, Gerngross raised $6.2 million in equity financing to launch Adimab. Polaris Ventures and SV Life Sciences, both based in Massachusetts, were investors in GlycoFi, as well.