Vaccine developer CaroGen Corp. disclosed this month that it recently raised $2.1 million, clearing a major hurdle on its path toward a clinical trial for its Hepatitis B treatment.The Series A investment is the largest ever for the four-year-old biotech, and carries the potential for more future funding.GP Fortune Investment Partners (GPFI), a subsidiary of […]
Vaccine developer CaroGen Corp. disclosed this month that it recently raised $2.1 million, clearing a major hurdle on its path toward a clinical trial for its Hepatitis B treatment.
The Series A investment is the largest ever for the four-year-old biotech, and carries the potential for more future funding.
GP Fortune Investment Partners (GPFI), a subsidiary of China-based GP Healthcare Group, led the investment round and could ante up an additional $7 million over the next three years, if CaroGen meets certain development milestones. Connecticut Innovations is also kicking in $1 million, assuming its board approves the deal.
Under the agreement, GPFI would receive development and marketing rights in China for CaroGen's therapeutic vaccine for chronic Hepatitis B (HBV), should the vaccine make it to market. The technology was developed at Yale by John Rose.
Bijan Almassian, CaroGen's CEO, chairman and co-founder, said last week that he was pleased with the investment, which he has been working on for the past nine months.
“It was a lot of work,” Almassian said.
He called GPFI an “ideal partner” and said the pairing would be mutually beneficial, giving CaroGen, which operates from UConn Health's Technology Incubation Program (TIP) facility in Farmington, needed resources to work towards a clinical trial in the next several years and provide hope of a treatment for the 74 million Chinese citizens suffering from chronic HBV. Worldwide, 248 million people suffer from the disease, according to a study by German medical researchers published in The Lancet last year.
There is a vaccine to prevent HBV, but no effective cure.
Founded in 2012, CaroGen had previously raised approximately $800,000 in funding, including prior investments from CI totaling $650,000.
Now, Almassian is already setting his sights on the next funding round.
Besides the additional $7 million potential investment from GPFI, CaroGen is aiming to raise another $8 million in 2017, Almassian said.
That funding would help CaroGen develop its broader pipeline of drugs, which includes treatments for Zika virus, C. difficile and colorectal cancer.
CaroGen has already had talks with some potential investors, including others in China, Almassian said.
— Matt Pilon
