Monday, November 2, 2009

RNAi startup Cequent raises $3.4M

By Julie M. Donnelly

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Cambridge-based biotechnology company Cequent Pharmaceuticals Inc. has raised $3.4 million of a planned $15 million financing round. The funding included investments from Wellesley-based Ampersand Ventures, Durham, N.C.-based A.M. Pappas Life Science Ventures and Cambridge-based Novartis Option Fund.

Founded in 2006, the company closed its first round of funding in June of 2007, which included investments from Ampersand, Pappas and the Novartis Option fund.

Cequent is tapping research developed at the Institut Pasteur in Paris and at the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center/Harvard Medical School to develop therapeutics using RNA interference technology to prevent and treat a wide range of human diseases, from inflammatory diseases to cancer.

Cequent’s product pipeline, which has candidates in preclinical development, includes drug targets aimed at colon-cancer prevention and inflammatory bowel disease.

 

Article has been updated as of Nov. 2, 2:20 p.m., to reflect the accurate amount of funding received.