iPierian Announces Second Close of $28 Million Series B Financing

SOUTH SAN FRANCISCO, Calif., Sept. 8 /PRNewswire/ -- iPierian, Inc., the leading biopharmaceutical company using patient-derived induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) for drug discovery, today announced the second closing of its Series B equity financing, bringing the total amount raised in this round to $28 million. SR One, the independent corporate healthcare venture capital arm of GlaxoSmithKline, Biogen Idec New Ventures, and additional undisclosed investors participated in this closing. They joined the existing investor syndicate of Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, Highland Capital Partners, MPM Capital, Google Ventures, FinTech Global Capital, Mitsubishi UFJ Capital and ATEL Ventures, who all previously participated in this round.

"iPierian has industrialized the new science of iPSC technology for drug discovery, and their platform has the potential to transform pharmaceutical discovery and development across a broad range of therapeutic areas," said Rajeev Dadoo, Ph.D., a partner at SR One, who will participate as an observer on the iPierian Board of Directors. "The progress of their lead programs has demonstrated the promise of this approach to identify novel, disease-modifying therapeutics, and we look forward to helping iPierian grow and succeed as the leader in the application of iPSC technology."

Michael Venuti, Ph.D., CEO of iPierian, commented, "We are delighted to attract SR One and Biogen Idec, both leading investors in drug discovery platform companies, to join the premier group of investors in iPierian."

About SR One

SR One is the corporate venture capital arm of GlaxoSmithKline. The firm invests globally in emerging life science companies that are pursuing innovative science which will significantly impact medical care. Since 1985, SR One has invested in more than 135 companies. For more information please visit www.srone.com.

About Biogen Idec New Ventures

New Ventures is Biogen Idec's corporate venture group, which has a commitment of US$200 million for strategic investments in emerging biotech companies. The strategy is to select investments in companies developing innovative human therapeutic products or technologies that will drive product discovery and development more efficiently. For more information please visit www.biogenidec.com/site/new-ventures.html

About iPierian

iPierian is the leading biopharmaceutical company focused on the industrialization of induced pluripotent stem cell (iPSC) technology and directed differentiation of patient cells for the discovery and development of new therapeutics. iPierian's approach places the patient at the forefront of the drug discovery process in order to reduce drug development time and increase the probability of success by using precise human disease models to develop proprietary small molecule or biologic therapeutics. The initial therapeutic focus of the company is neurodegenerative diseases, including spinal muscular atrophy (SMA), amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) and Parkinson's disease, in addition to a broad therapeutic area program intended for partnering in metabolic disease.

The company's Scientific Advisory Board (SAB) is comprised of leading researchers and authorities in the stem cell field, including individual investigators from the Harvard Stem Cell Institute, The Gladstone Institute and The University of California, San Francisco.  Our scientific founders are George Q. Daley, M.D., Ph.D., Douglas A. Melton, Ph.D., and Lee L. Rubin, Ph.D. all of the Harvard Stem Cell Institute, and Deepak Srivastava, M.D., of the Gladstone Institute and UCSF.

iPierian is located in South San Francisco, California. For more information, please visit www.ipierian.com.

SOURCE iPierian, Inc.