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Synageva Biopharma Announces Completion
of $45 Million Financing with New $12 Million Investment,
Addition of New Leaf Venture Partners to Investor Group, and
Expansion of Senior Leadership Team
Waltham, MA, October 20, 2009 -- Synageva BioPharma Corp., a
privately held biopharmaceutical company, announced today that
it has completed the final closing on a $45 million financing
that began earlier this year. This final closing, which adds $12
million to the $33 million investment announced in May, includes
existing investors as well as new investor New Leaf Venture
Partners (NLV), based in New York City and Menlo Park, CA. As
part of the financing, Srini Akkaraju, M.D., Ph.D., Managing
Director at NLV, will join Synageva’s Board of Directors.
Synageva also announced the expansion of its senior leadership
team with several key appointments.
“This $45 million financing helps Synageva realize its vision of
developing a portfolio of innovative medicines for patients with
rare diseases and high unmet medical need,” stated Sanj K.
Patel, Synageva’s President and CEO. “Synageva’s technology has
advanced tremendously and allows us to develop therapies for
conditions that afflict small patient populations who are
frequently overlooked and often have no existing therapies. This
development focus, along with partnering interest we have
received for our cytokine and high potency monoclonal antibody
programs, positions Synageva to generate tremendous value. I am
pleased that New Leaf Ventures has joined our other premier
investors, and I am convinced that together we will fulfill our
vision to provide these therapies to patients.”
Srini Akkaraju, M.D., Ph.D., of New Leaf Venture Partners,
stated, “Having followed the company’s progress closely, I am
delighted to see how Synageva has established its technology
platform as having critical advantages in developing many types
of protein therapeutics. With the addition of a team that has
substantial experience in rare disease product development, the
company is poised to execute on this new corporate vision that
will help patients that are often overlooked.”
New Management Appointments
Anthony Quinn, M.D., Ph.D., Senior Vice President and Chief
Medical Officer, is responsible for developing and overseeing
the clinical strategy for Synageva’s portfolio. He is also
responsible for advancing Synageva’s clinical research and
development capabilities, and expanding its translational
medicine activities focused on areas of high unmet medical need.
Dr. Quinn joins Synageva from Roche, where he was Vice President
and Global Head of Clinical Research and Exploratory Development
for Inflammation. Dr. Quinn is an experienced R&D leader with
more than 20 years of clinical, translational medicine and
contemporary drug development experience across a broad range of
disease areas.
Eric Grinstead, Senior Vice President, Government and Business
Affairs, is responsible for business strategy for Synageva. Most
recently Eric served as Vice President of Government Affairs and
Market Access for Alexion Pharmaceuticals, Inc. Eric has over 20
years of experience in commercial strategy, operations,
government affairs, and reimbursement at companies such as
Genzyme and Amgen.
AJ Joshi, M.D., Senior Vice President, Strategic Development and
Corporate Operations, is responsible for Synageva's corporate
strategy and operations, as well as life cycle and alliance
management. Most recently, Dr. Joshi was Vice President of US
Medical Affairs and Operations at Genzyme Corporation.
Brian Conner, Vice President Quality and Regulatory Affairs/
General Manager - Atlanta Office, is responsible for quality,
regulatory affairs management, and general operations at
Synageva’s Atlanta area office and production facilities. Brian
most recently served as the Corporate Compliance Officer for
Stiefel Laboratories.
John Taylor, Vice President, Business Development, is
responsible for Synageva’s product and technology licensing and
its business development functions. John joins Synageva from
Javelin Pharmaceuticals, where he was Vice President, Business
Development.
“Collectively, these new appointments bring a powerful
combination of deep drug development, rare disease market, and
overall biotech industry expertise to the Synageva leadership
team,” stated Patel. “They share the passion, values, and
absolute commitment that will be required to rapidly execute on
our vision, successfully develop the therapies we are targeting,
and ultimately earn the privilege of providing them to
patients.”
About Synageva BioPharma Corp.
Synageva BioPharma Corp., is a biopharmaceutical company
dedicated to developing and commercializing novel,
next-generation, and follow-on protein therapeutics that
leverage the unique competitive advantages of its proprietary
Synageva Expression Platform (SEP™). Synageva's development
programs address specific unmet medical or market needs in
several therapeutic areas, including oncology and rare
disorders. The Company has generated a diverse pipeline of
product candidates, including high-potency monoclonal antibodies
with up to 100-fold increased killing activity for cancer
targets, novel proteins for rare diseases, and next-generation
and follow-on cytokines.
SEP™ by Synageva is a novel, integrated platform of proprietary
vectors and protein production, processing and purification
systems. It provides a number of sustainable advantages over
current expression systems for developing and commercializing
protein therapeutics, including: high expression levels, more
efficient purification processes, rapid scalability, consistency
of end product, substantially reduced costs, and the ability to
produce certain proteins with the potential for improved
activity and/or safety profiles. Synageva has leveraged these
attributes to develop its pipeline of biopharmaceuticals,
including monoclonal antibodies with significant potency and
potential efficacy advantages. Further information regarding
Synageva BioPharma Corp. is available at
www.synageva.com.
About NLV Partners
NLV Partners is a life science-dedicated venture capital firm
with offices in Menlo Park and New York. Founded by an
experienced team of venture capitalists with deep healthcare
industry experience, NLV Partners invests primarily in companies
focused on clinical-stage biopharmaceutical products,
early-stage medical devices and molecular diagnostics. NLV
Partners manages over $1.3 billion of assets, including NLV-I,
NLV-II and the healthcare technology portfolio of Sprout Group.
For further information, visit the NLV Partners website at
www.nlvpartners.com.
Contact
Chris Heberlig
Director of Finance and Administration
Synageva BioPharma Corp.
60 Hickory Drive
Waltham, MA 02451
(781) 890-1111
chris.heberlig @synageva.com
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