Funding Follows Biotechnology Center Investments
Durham biotechnology company Phase Bioscience, aided in its early development by $165,000 in three loans from the North Carolina Biotechnology Center, has received $5.4 million in a new round of venture capital investment.
This week's series B venture funding follows a $1.2 million series B infusion that closed in January. Johnson & Johnson Development Corp., which led the earlier capital buy-in, also co-led the current round with Fletcher Spaght Ventures of Boston. A local founding investor, Hatteras Venture Partners of Durham, also contributed this time.
Guy Fish of Fletcher Spaght and Doug Reed of Hatteras will join Phase Bioscience's board. J&J's Carol Marino was named to the board in January.
The Biotechnology Center awarded Phase Bioscience a $15,000 Business Development Loan in 2002 to support a market assessment of its drug delivery technology.
In 2005, the Biotechnology Center provided the firm the maximum $75,000 Small Business Innovation Research Bridge loan. The SBIR Bridge Loan Program helps companies maintain technology-development momentum through the inevitable gap between the finish of Phase I of a federal SBIR-funded project and receipt of Phase II funding.
Last year the Biotechnology Center awarded the company a maximum $150,000 Small Business Research loan, but so far only half the loan has been transferred. The SRL program supports applied research critical to the development of products, processes, services or tools with clear commercial potential.
Phase Bioscience aims to develop technology that reduces the cost of drug development and improves existing drugs. Its technology is licensed in part from Duke University.