Regenerative Medicine Firm Tengion Raises $33M in Venture Capital

EAST NORRITON, Pa. — Tengion, a developer of regenerative medicine technology, has closed on $33 million in a new round of venture funding.

The company has licensed technology developed by Anthony Atala, M.D., who is the director of the Institute for Regenerative medicine at Wake Forest University. He is a member of the scientific advisory board at Tengion and is the scientific founder of the company. Many of the firm’s 60 patents are based on Atala’s work and are licensed from Harvard University Children’s Hospital and MIT.

The Series C financing will be used to finance late-stage clinical development of the Tengion Neo-Bladder Augment technology as well as other technology platforms for cardiovascular and urinary uses, the company said. Tengion has now raised well over $100 million in venture capital since its founding in 2003.

Clinical trials involving the Neo-Bladder technology are currently underway with pediatric patients who have spina bifida and in adults who have suffered a spinal cord injury.

Deerfield Partners joined the financing and is a new investor in Tengion. Other investors included Bain Capital, Johnson & Johnson Development Corporation, HealthCap, Quaker BioVentures, Oak Investment Partners and L Capital Partners. Horizon technology Finance and Oxford Finance, which are lenders to the company, also made equity investments.

“The ability of Tengion to attract additional capital from an expanding roster of leading biotech investors is a testament to our significant clinical progress, the manufacturing expertise we have developed and the potential of our regenerative medicine products to provide solutions for important unmet medical needs,” said Steven Nichtberger, M.D., the chief executive officer of Tengion.

The Neo-Bladder technology is designed to help patients regenerate a bladder using what Tengion calls a “biodegradable scaffold” that is seeded with healthy cells.