NovaQuest, the venture capital arm of Quintiles Transnational, has invested in Topigen Pharmaceuticals, a biopharmaceutical firm in Montreal, Canada.
NovaQuest’s investment was part of a $25 million private placement by Topigen. The amount of the NovaQuest investment was not disclosed.
MMV Financial, Inc. also participated in the financing. Both NovaQuest and MMV are new investors in Topigen. Alsom participating in thw fund raising were existing Topigen investors BDC Venture Capital, Desjardins Venture Capital, Caisse de Depot et Placement du Quebec, and Lothina Partners.
Topigen, which has rasied more than $75 million in investments overall, will use the funds to accelerate clinical trials of its lead product that targets respiratory disease..
Quintiles, an international contract research organization, and NovaQuest have worked with Topigen on product development for the last three years.
"The ability to access NovaQuest’s clinical expertise and Quintiles’ development capabilities is a tremendous benefit to our company as we continue to advance our product candidates for significant breakthroughs in the treatment of respiratory diseases,” said Patricia Lamothe, chief financial officer at Topigen.
NovaQuest participated in 16 investments in 2006. In all those deals raised $342 million.
"Having been very active in 2006, with 16 strategic investments, our focus now is to create fewer but larger partnerships,” said Ben Cons, vice president for NovaQuest. “We’re seeking high potential biotechs – those with excellent pipelines and strong management teams. Our managed partnership with Topigen is an example of this.”
NovaQuest offers financial and operational solutions for pharmaceutical and biotech firms,
