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Concert Pharmaceuticals Raises $48.5 Million in Series B
Financing
Lexington, MA – November 30, 2006 - Concert Pharmaceuticals,
Inc.™, a pharmaceutical company developing novel small molecule
drugs for unmet medical needs, announced today that a group of
prominent funds has invested $48.5 million in its Series B
financing. The round was led by new investor Flagship Ventures
and included Brookside Capital Partners Fund, LP and New Leaf
Venture Partners. Also participating in the financing were all
previous investors, including Three Arch Partners, TVM Capital,
Skyline Ventures, Greylock Partners and QVT Fund LP.
“With this additional funding, and these premier new investors,
we will be able to systematically exploit our proprietary
technology and rapidly advance our diverse pipeline into
clinical evaluation,” said Roger Tung, Ph.D., CEO of Concert.
“The enthusiasm of our new and existing investors in funding
Concert at a significantly increased valuation is a strong
endorsement of our unique approach to creating important new
medicines for a broad range of medical conditions.”
In conjunction with this transaction, Doug Cole, General Partner
of Flagship Venture Partners will join Concert’s Board of
Directors. “Concert’s technology represents a fundamental
advance in the creation of new medicines and holds the promise
of both greatly reducing R&D cycle times and enhancing the
likelihood of successful clinical development,” commented Dr.
Cole. “The team has a proven track record of creating value in
the biotechnology industry.”
Richard Aldrich, Concert’s Chairman and former CBO at Vertex,
also commented, “This round of investment in Concert is
recognition of both our pioneering approach to drug discovery
and development and our team’s pharmaceutical industry
experience. I look forward to working closely with the team as
we execute our strategy.”
About Concert Pharmaceuticals
Concert Pharmaceuticals was co-founded in April 2006 by Roger
Tung, Richard Aldrich and Christoph Westphal. Dr. Tung had
previously served as Vice President of Drug Discovery at Vertex
Pharmaceuticals, and is an inventor of Vertex’s two marketed
products. By applying insights derived from existing
biologically active compounds, Concert aims to create
proprietary and improved medicines while dramatically reducing
R&D costs and increasing the probabilities of commercial
success.
www.concertpharma.com
About Flagship Ventures
Flagship Ventures is an early-stage venture capital firm focused
on creating, financing, and building innovative companies in the
Life Science and Technology sectors. Headquartered in Cambridge,
Mass., the firm was founded in 1999 and manages $700 million in
capital and a portfolio of over 50 private companies. Prior to
its founding, Flagship's principals were involved as founders or
investors in over 100 startup ventures, including: Adolor,
AltaVista, Anesta, Antigenics, Aspect Medical, Astral Point,
Celera Genomics, ChemGenics Pharmaceuticals, Color Kinetics,
Chantry Networks, Cytyc, DataSage, Exact Sciences, IDEXX,
PerSeptive Biosystems, Somatogen, Telecorp PCS and TripAdvisor.
www.flagshipventures.com
About NLV Partners
New Leaf Venture (NLV) Partners is a life science-dedicated
venture capital firm with offices in Menlo Park and New York.
Founded by the former members of Sprout Group's Healthcare
Technology venture team, NLV Partners invests primarily in
companies focused on clinical-stage biopharmaceutical products,
early-stage medical devices, and molecular diagnostics. In
addition, the NLV Partners team continues to manage the existing
$800 million healthcare technology portfolio of Sprout Group.
www.nlvpartners.com
About Three Arch Partners
Three Arch Partners was formed in 1993 to provide young
companies with access to relevant clinical and business
resources, as well as capital. Three Arch has helped create,
build and fund more than fifty important new healthcare
companies. These companies have often become the clinical and
market leaders in their respective fields, and have generated
strong returns.
www.threearch.com
About TVM Capital
TVM Capital, founded in 1983, is a transatlantic venture capital
firm, with offices in Boston and Munich. Since inception TVM
Capital has raised over $1.6 billion in six fund generations and
has established itself as a leading technology investment group
in the United States and Europe. TVM funds have made investments
in more than 220 life sciences and information technology
companies where innovation, effective management and sound
financial backing have enormous impact on company growth. TVM’s
in-depth knowledge of the U.S. and European environments helps
companies create businesses that enjoy access to science,
management talent, distribution channels and capital on both
sides of the Atlantic. More than 40 companies have gone public
at European or US stock exchanges. Today, TVM Capital is
actively invested in more than 60 companies.
www.tvm-capital.com
About Skyline Ventures
Skyline Ventures, formed in 1997, is a nationally-known firm
that specializes in hands-on investing in healthcare companies.
Skyline invests in outstanding companies in all sectors of the
healthcare market, including biotechnology, small molecule and
protein therapeutics, medical devices, consumables and equipment
for life sciences research, and healthcare information
technology. Most often they lead or co-lead a company's first
institutional venture round, but occasionally have helped found
or co-found a company, participated in a LBO or invested in a
PIPE transaction. In 2005 Skyline raised Skyline IV, which has
$200 million in committed capital, leading to a total of
approximately $450 million under management.
www.skylineventures.com
About Greylock Partners
Greylock’s strategy is to partner with management in building
companies that have the potential to become industry leaders.
They prefer to build around an outstanding entrepreneurial
leader or team with a powerful technology and market vision.
Greylock tends to focus on capital-efficient businesses where
high barriers to entry can be constructed, and works closely
with the start-up team to build the organization. Greylock
currently has committed capital in excess of $2 billion.
www.greylock.com
CONTACT:
Nancy Stuart
SVP Corporate Strategy and Operations
Concert Pharmaceuticals
+1-781-860-0045 ext. 205
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