Wednesday, March 4, 2009

Regulus lands $20M in Series A round

By Marc Songini

Regulus Therapeutics Inc., the joint venture between Cambridge biotech Alnylam Pharmaceuticals Inc. and California-based Isis Pharmaceuticals Inc., has received $20 million in a Series A equity financing round.

Regulus Therapeutics develops microRNA-based drugs. Company founders Alnylam Pharmaceuticals (Nasdaq: ALNY) and Isis Pharmaceuticals (Nasdaq: ISIS) were the sole investors in this latest round. The intent, stated Regulus in an announcement this week, was to further strengthen its balance sheet as its advances its programs toward clinical trials. This financing also will give Regulus the cash it will need to survive through 2011, stated Kleanthis Xanthopoulos, president and CEO of Regulus.

Regulus also announced it had just completed a legal reorganization from an LLC to a “C” corporation. The reorganization of its capital structure to a C corporation will enable the company to be more flexible and “attract capital and continue forging relationships with the pharmaceutical industry,” Xanthopoulos stated in a press release. He also noted Regulus has made “significant scientific and business progress in a very short time, due in part to the support and expertise of Alnylam and Isis.”

Launched in 2007, Regulus has more than 900 patents, with approximately 600 issued and 300 pending. Last September, the company appointed Stelios Papadopoulos to its board of directors.
Papadopoulos had previously worked as vice chairman of Cowen and Company, where he served the biotechnology and pharmaceutical sectors as an investment banker. Alnylam develops RNA-interference drugs, while Isis is focused on RNA-based, antisense treatments.