Eleven Biotherapeutics, Inc., a biopharmaceutical company designing and engineering novel and differentiated protein-based biotherapeutics, announced today that it has secured $20 million dollars in Series A equity financing, expanding the total Series A investment to $45M. New investor, JAFCO Co., Ltd. joined the Series A financing with a $10 million investment and $10 million was received from commitments from existing investors, Third Rock Ventures and Flagship Ventures. “Eleven Biotherapeutics is on the cutting-edge of science and technology with its rationally-designed novel protein therapeutics,” said Kenji Harada, PhD, Principal of JAFCO. “I look forward to working with Eleven’s leadership team as they move programs forward that have the potential to offer a truly significant advance over current treatments.”
“With JAFCO we are very pleased to expand our circle of industry-leading investors,” said Abbie Celniker, PhD, CEO of Eleven Biotherapeutics. “Eleven has made tremendous progress in rationally designing proteins ‘fit for purpose’ such as our lead drug candidate EBI-005, which will be entering clinical development for the treatment of dry eye syndrome later this year. This financing provides us with a strong financial foundation and firmly validates our investors’ enthusiasm for Eleven’s ability to develop novel, best-in-class protein therapeutics.”
Proceeds from the financing will be used to advance Eleven’s first program, EBI-005, into clinical development while continuing to advance earlier stage programs generated by its proprietary AMP-Rx product engine.
In conjunction with this financing transaction, Kenji Harada, PhD, will join the Eleven Biotherapeutics board of directors. He joins board members Noubar Afeyan, PhD, and David Berry, MD, PhD, of Flagship Ventures and Mark Levin and Cary Pfeffer, MD, of Third Rock Ventures.
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