New Haven-based Kolltan Pharmaceuticals Inc. said it raised another $10 million to fund its development pipeline of therapies to battle cancerous tumors in humans.
Celtic Therapeutics L.P. and Tichenor Ventures LLC put up the funds in exchange for convertible preferred shares and a potential stake in Kolltan’s co-development of tumor-fighting drugs with one of the investors’ affiliates.
Kolltan Chairman and co-founder Arthur Altschul Jr. said the latest investment brings to $50 million the equity raised thus far as Kolltan prepares for clinical trials its treatment that uses re-engineered animal cells to target and destroy human cancer cells.
The relationship between Celtic’s principals and Kolltan date back to 1991.
That’s when Kolltan’s co-founder and lead researcher Dr. Joseph Schlessinger, chairman of Yale’s pharmacology department, launched a successful cancer-treatment startup, SUGEN, in Redwood City, Calif.
Today, SUGEN is part of Pfizer Inc.
