Interius Therapeutics, a two-year-old Philadelphia gene therapy company spun out of Penn, raised a $76 million Series A in what is believed to be the largest private stock sale by a local life sciences company during the last fiscal year. Interius Biotherapeutics was co-founded by Penn Medicine’s Saar Gil, PhD, assistant professor of Medicine at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, and longtime life sciences industry entrepreneur Bruce Peacock, a former executive at local companies including Centocor, Cephalon, Orthovita and Adolor.
The oversubscribed Series A equity financing round was co-led by new investors Boston-based Cormorant Asset Management and Fairmount Funds out of Philadelphia. Other new investors included Bain Capital Life Sciences, Pfizer Ventures, RA Capital Management, Longwood Fund, Logos Capital, Osage University Partners and Quan Capital. In addition to the new syndicate members, Interius’s existing investors — Tellus BioVentures, the University of Pennsylvania and Penn Medicine, Agent Capital, the Mark Foundation for Cancer Research, Knollwood, and BrightEdge, the American Cancer Society’s impact investment fund — all participated in the round as well.
- Read More in the Philadelphia Business Journal (May be behind paywall)
- Saar Gill Lab
