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Biotech Company Secures $38 Million Series D Funds

Currency dice (MD4 Group/Flickr)Alder BioPharmaceuticals Inc. in Bothell, Washington says it closed $38 million in financing today to support clinical studies of its two lead compounds. The series D round, the fourth financing installment after initial start-up, is led by Novo Ventures, the venture capital subsidiary of Danish pharmaceutical maker Novo Nordisk.

Alder BioPharmaceuticals has developed an antibody production technology it calls Mab Xpress based on a yeast expression system that the company says has the ability to make fully functional whole antibodies at a fraction of the time and cost of other technologies. The process, says the company, can generate full-length, function-modifying antibodies at high expression levels much faster than traditional mammalian systems.

Proceeds from the round are expected to support Alder’s two lead compounds. ALD518 is a monoclonal antibody now in phase 2 clinical trials on cancer-related disorders. ALD518 is in development with Bristol-Myers Squibb as well as a treatment for autoimmune diseases.

ALD403 is Alder’s calcitonin gene-related peptide inhibiting antibody for treatment of migraine. A clinical trial of ALD403 in healthy volunteers is planned to begin later this month.

Novo Ventures, a new investor in Alder BioPharmaceuticals, was joined in the round by existing investors Sevin Rosen Funds, Ventures West, WRF Capital, H.I.G. Ventures, Delphi Ventures, and TPG Biotech. Peter Bisgaard, a partner with Novo Ventures, will join Alder’s board of directors.

Read more: Bristol-Myers Squibb, Biotech Partner on Alzheimer’s Test

Hat tip: Term Sheet/Fortune

Image: MD4 Group/Flickr

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