Biolex Therapeutics closes on $60M in financing

PITTSBORO, N.C. — Biolex Therapeutics has new investors and a colossal new round of venture financing – $60 million – in the bank.

OrbiMed Advisors has signed on as a backer of the Pittsboro-based life-science startup.

Leading the round is Clarus Ventures, also a new backer.

The investment is believed to be the largest ever in a North Carolina biotechnolgy firm and is the largest since billionaire Carl Ichan invested $50 million in mobile services firm Motricity last fall.

In a related announcement, Biolex said it would pay up to $149 million for all rights to the lead drug candidate it has under development.

Others participating were previous investors Intersouth partners in Durham, Quaker BioVentures, Johnson & Johnson Development Corp., Investor Growth Capital, Polaris Ventures, Mitsui & Co., The Dow Chemical Company, JP Morgan Securities and the North Carolina Economic Development Fund.

In July, after a tough Wall Street environment scuttled its plans to raise money through an initial public offering of stock, Biolex secured $10.5 million in loans.

Biolex, which is developing a number of therapeutics based on the aquatic plant lemna, borrowed from Silicon Valley Bank and Oxford Finance Corp.

The new funds will be used for further drug development, the company said.

Biolex’s lead product, called Locteron, is a treatment for hepatitis C. It is in Phase II clinical trials. Biolex believes the drug will be a successful product in a $5 billion market for hepatitis C by the year 2014.

“This financing is designed to prepare Locteron for Phase III development, including the completion of ongoing and planned Phase II testing,” said Jan Turek, Biolex’s Chief Executive Officer. “We are pleased to have firms of the caliber of Clarus and OrbiMed join our existing group of high-quality investors, an investment team that has been instrumental in supporting and guiding the advancement of Biolex.”

The company has now raised close to $160 million in funding, with Intersouth owning some 20 percent of the firm’s shares, according to Private Equity Wire.

Biolex is developing therapeutic products based on antibodies developed through patented technology. It closed on $30 million in funding in May 2007. The round was oversubscribed, meaning investors put more money into the firm than management had intended to raise.

The company closed on $36 million in financing in 2005.