BiPar Sciences Raises $20 Million

BiPar Sciences Inc., a Brisbane, Calif.-based developer of PARP inhibitors as cancer therapies, has raised $20 million in new venture capital and debt funding. Return equity backers included Domain Associates, Canaan Partners, Vulcan Capital, PolyTechnos Venture-Partners, Asset Management Company and Quantum Technology Partners. Lighthouse Capital Partners provided the debt. No breakout was provided.

PRESS RELEASE

BiPar Sciences, Inc., a privately held biopharmaceutical company developing PARP inhibitors as novel cancer therapies, announced today it has raised $20 million from a combination of equity capital and venture debt financing, more than doubling BiPar’s cash resources.  Participating in the round were existing equity investors Domain Associates, Canaan Partners, Vulcan Capital, PolyTechnos Venture-Partners, Asset Management Company and Quantum Technology Partners, along with venture-debt lender Lighthouse Capital Partners.

 

“We are excited at the continued commitment from all of our existing investors in BiPar and in the potential of PARP inhibitors as an important new therapeutic modality in cancer,” said Hoyoung Huh, M.D., Ph.D., president and chief executive officer of BiPar Sciences. “This financing will allow us to progress our lead program, BSI-201, towards Phase 3 registrational trials for breast cancer in 2009.”

 

Recently, BiPar announced positive interim safety data from an ongoing Phase 2 clinical trial of the company’s PARP inhibitor, BSI-201, in combination with chemotherapy in patients with metastatic triple negative breast cancer (TNBC). The company also presented gene expression data that confirmed significant upregulation of PARP in the tumors of the first 50 patients enrolled in the Phase 2 trial. Results were presented at the recent annual CTRC-AACR San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium (SABCS) in December 2008.

 

About BiPar Sciences and BSI-201

BiPar Sciences, Inc. is a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company focused on DNA repair using Poly ADP-Ribose Polymerase (PARP) inhibitors.  PARP inhibitors represent a new, targeted approach to treating many types of cancers.  By preventing cancer cells from repairing their own DNA, PARP inhibitors ultimately cause cancer cell death.  The company’s lead product candidate is BSI-201, a potential first-in-class and best-in-class PARP inhibitor currently being studied in Phase 2 testing for metastatic triple negative breast cancer, ovarian cancer and other malignancies.  The company also has two additional compounds in pre-clinical development, BSI-401, a follow-on PARP inhibitor candidate being investigated as an oral therapy for pancreatic cancer and BSI-302, a novel anti-tubulin therapy.  BiPar Sciences is privately held with headquarters in Brisbane, California. For more information, please visit www.biparsciences.com.

 

About Triple Negative Breast Cancer (TNBC)

When patients are diagnosed with breast cancer, their tumors are routinely tested for and classified based on the presence of estrogen, progesterone, and HER2 receptors. Commonly used breast cancer therapies, such as tamoxifen and Herceptin®, target these receptors. However, up to 20 percent of all breast cancers are negative for all three receptors, thus giving rise to the term “triple negative breast cancer (TNBC).”

TNBC is a difficult-to-treat cancer subtype that does not have an approved standard-of-care and does not respond to current hormone-based and targeted therapies. TNBC is a very aggressive cancer, with higher rates of metastases and poorer survival rates than other breast cancer subtypes. The prevalence of the TNBC subtype is higher in younger and African-American women