Cardio drug maker Portola Pharmaceuticals takes $60M extension
San Francisco-based drug company Portola Pharmaceuticals has taken a $60 million extension to its third round of funding to see it through Phase II trials for betrixaban, a drug intended to prevent blood clots.
The company is also working on an antiplatelet agent called PRT060128. If its drugs do well in trials, the company will likely head to an IPO, as we reported alongside its last $70 million fundung.
In all, Portola has taken about $200 million to date.
A large set of investors came on for the funding. New investor D.E. Shaw & Co. led, and was joined by other newcomers Adage Capital Management, BBT Capital Management/Apothecary Capital, Janus Capital Group and Pac-Link BioVentures. The existing investors participating included: Abingworth, Advanced Technology Ventures, AllianceBernstein LP, Alta Partners, Brookside Capital, China Investment & Development Co., Frazier Healthcare, Goldman Sachs, IBT Management Corp., MPM Capital, Prospect Ventures, Sutter Hill Ventures, and Teachers’ Private Capital.
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About the Author, Chris Morrison
Chris Morrison writes about cleantech and environmental issues for VentureBeat, with occasional forays into gaming and semantic technology. He got his start writing about tech for Business 2.0 magazine, but quickly realized new media was the ticket when that institution closed its doors in 2007. Chris has also covered public equities and regulatory issues. He originally hails from southern Virginia, graduated from Evergreen State College in Washington, and now lives in San Francisco.