Three more biotechs launched by GSK and Avalon Ventures

San Diego, USA-based Avalon Ventures today announced the launch of three new companies formed through its ongoing successful collaboration with US pharma major GlaxoSmithKline (LSE: GSK) to fund and launch up to 10 early-stage life science companies (The Pharma Letter April 24, 2013).

This brings the total number of companies formed through the collaboration to six in just two years. Adrenergics, CadheRx Therapeutics and Calporta Therapeutics will each receive up to $10 million in a Series A financing and R&D support from Avalon Ventures and GSK. All three companies will be located at COI Pharmaceuticals in San Diego, the community of innovation established by Avalon Ventures to provide operational support, a fully equipped R&D facility and an experienced leadership team to its life science portfolio companies.

"Avalon's nimble start-up mentality aligned with the unparalleled R&D expertise and resources of a global pharmaceutical giant like GSK has proven to be a powerful engine for identifying exciting early-stage research for translation into drug candidates, producing six new biotech companies from this collaboration over the last two years," said Jay Lichter, managing director of Avalon Ventures. "These newly created companies bear the hallmarks of the type of projects we are looking for: novel targets with an established mechanism of action, a clear clinical path in a defined patient population and potential to expand into other indications," he added.

Total of $495 million funding for the 10 new companies