LifeMine’s chairman and co-founder Rick Klausner has co-led a round that included multiple corporates and pushed the overall equity to $120m.
LifeMine Therapeutics, a US-based small molecule drug developer based on research at Harvard University, has secured $50m of series B funding co-led by Rick Klausner, a co-founder and the chairman.
Milky Way Investments co-led the round, while nternet and technology group Alphabet and pharmaceutical firms WuXi AppTec and Merck & Co took part through respective vehicles GV, WuXi Healthcare Ventures and MRL Ventures Fund.
Foresite Capital, Arch Ventures and Blue Pool Capital filled out the round.
LifeMine is studying fungi with a view to developing medicines to address a range of difficult-to-treat diseases. It has also developed a collection of more than 100,000 living fungal strains sourced from pharmaceutical companies such as Merck, Schering and Pfizer.
Its drug discovery platform is based on research by another co-founder, Gregory Verdine, the Erving professor of chemistry at Harvard and a venture partner at WuXi Healthcare Ventures. Verdine now…
