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Print Edition StoriesThursday, January 22, 2009
Enlight Biosciences boosts funds to $52M by adding partner J&J
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Boston-based life sciences startup Enlight Biosciences LLC has partnered with Johnson & Johnson Co., bringing its available development funding up to $52 million.
In July, Enlight made its formal launch announcement, with backing from drug giants Eli Lilly & Co., Pfizer Inc., and Merck & Co. Inc. At that time, it claimed it had $39 million on hand. So far, Enlight has been focused on developing technologies in molecular imaging, biologics and drug delivery, but it has potential plans to work in other life science fields, as well.
Now Johnson & Johnson is a partner, and may invest in the development of technologies Enlight hopes will transform drug discovery and development. Johnson & Johnson can apply these pre-competitive technologies to its own therapeutic programs. Johnson & Johnson stated that in particular, it saw this as a way of improving its oncology, cardiovascular, and inflammation offerings.
For its part, Johnson & Johnson is expected to deliver its own extensive scientific and commercial know-how to Enlight’s operations. This includes guiding Enlight’s focus areas and strategic directions, and prioritizing the key technologies and programs.
PureTech Ventures, a Boston venture firm, founded Enlight with academic bigwigs such as Nobel laureate Robert Horvitz, a professor of biology at MIT; Sam Gambhir, a professor of radiology at Stanford University; Rakesh Jain, a professor of tumor biology at Harvard Medical School; Raju Kucherlapati, a professor of genetics at Harvard Medical School and co-founder of Cambridge-based biotech firm Millennium Pharmaceuticals Inc., according to the startup.
David Steinberg, a senior principal at PureTech, is the founding CEO of Enlight.
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