Intradigm lands $18.5M to advance Oncology treatment

Not only do we see venture capital money here, also some big Pharma names.

In a related story, Roche sees diagnostic machines and test kits as crucial to assessing and treating disease in the future and their risk profile has recognition of being one large investor in a growing area of drug research: ribonucleic-acid-mediated interference, or RNAi and Roche Venture is clearly listed below.

“The days of this trial-and-error approach may soon be over. All of Big Pharma is feeling pressure--from Wall Street, regulators and customers--to take a smarter path to discovery for that next blockbuster drug. And who wins vs. who is left behind is still very much up in the air. Getting drugs to the market has never been more expensive. The price tag for developing a single medication can now top $1 billion, compared with less than $300 million 15 years ago. Roche sees diagnostic machines and test kits as crucial to assessing and treating disease in the future. That belief, in turn, has led to a laser-sharp focus on "personalized medicine."

The expensive research for the drugs we need to cure and treat ailments is in indeed a very expensive project globally. BD

Intradigm, a biotech company that develops RNA interference treatments for cancer, announced today that it took $18.5 million in a second round of financing that included new investors Lilly Ventures, Roche Venture Fund, MP Healthcare Venture Management, and existing investors Alta Partners, Frazier Healthcare Ventures, MediBic Alliance Technology Fund and Novartis Venture Fund.

The Palo Alto, Calif.-based company has developed an RNA interference therapy for cancer, as well as a mode for delivering it to the right parts of the body. That delivery system is what distinguishes Intradigm from its competitors, including Sirna Therapeutics Inc., which continues to administer RNA interference therapies locally. It will use this new round of funds to forge partnerships that could move technology and testing forward. It hopes to have a treatment enter the clinical phase of testing by 2010.

Intradigm lands $18.5M to advance oncology treatment » VentureBeat