Content provided in partnership with

Inspire nets $63.1m Targacept, StemCo raise $23.8m in VC

Inspire Pharmaceuticals Inc. (Nasdaq: ISPH) of Durham recently netted 563.1 million through a public offering of common stock, white Targacept Inc. of Winston-Salem and StemCo Biomedical Inc. of Research Triangle Park collectively raised $23.8 million in venture capital.

Inspire plans to use the net proceeds of the public offering for clinical development and product commercialization, discovery research and pre-clinical activities, working capital and general corporate purposes, including the possible acquisition of businesses, technologies or products.

Inspire's read product candidates target ophthalmic and respiratory diseases with few current treatment options.

Most Popular Articles in Technology: An overview of continuous data protection; Why all those current ratings?; Many countries now have a mobile penetration rate above 100%, report says; The Tata Group's big telecom gamble: VSNL's recent acquisition of Tyco ...; MEASURING BANK BRANCH EFFICIENCY USING DATA ENVELOPMENT ANALYSIS: MANAGERIAL ...; More »

Deutsche Bank Securities of New York and U.S. Bancorp Piper Jaffray of Minneapolis, Minn., managed the public offering.

For more information visit the company's Web site.

Targacept Inc. raised $14 million as part of a second-round financing that now totals 560 million. The company has raised a total of 590 million since its formation in 2000.

"These funds provide further endorsement of the potential of our product portfolio and underlying technology platform and will allow us to rapidly progress the development of our clinical and late-stage preclinical candidates," said J. Donald deBethizy, the company's president and CEO. "We now have the capital and infrastructure to help us build one of the leading biotechnology companies in the CNS space."

Targacept has products in research and development for treating Alzheimer's and Parkinson's diseases, Lewy body dementia, ulcerative colitis, depression, pain, anxiety disorders and schizophrenia.

The latest financing was led by Nomura International's Healthcare Private Equity Group, based in London.

For more information visit the company's Web site.

StemCo Biomedical Inc. of Research Triangle Park has secured $9.8 million in series B financing.

The company will use the funds to advance its development of hematopoietic stemcell identification products, which are not derived from fetal or embryonic tissues. One of the company's products will enter clinical trials later this year.

"We are very pleased to have such a strong team of investors for our second institutional round of financing," said Jonathon Lawrie, president and CEO of StemCo. "The fundraising environment is difficult today, but StemCo was fortunate to partner with top-notch investors that believe in our mission to be the leader in therapeutic stem-cell products."

Durham-based Intersouth Partners and The Aurora Funds led the financing.

"We especially like the business model of StemCo," said Jeff Clark, managing general partner of Aurora. "StemCo can build itself from early revenue rather than large quantities of venture capital dollars."

For more information visit the company's Web site.

Technology Industry

Inspire nets $63.1m Targacept, StemCo raise $23.8m in VC

BT Catalyst, April, 2003

Find Research Guides for:

Find Featured Titles for: News

Most Popular Articles in Technology

Most Popular Publications in Technology