RESEARCH TRIANGLE PARK, NC (March 18, 2003) STEMCO Biomedical, Inc., an RTP, NC-based company engaged in the development of hematopoietic stem cell (HSC) identification products, announced today that it has secured a Series B round of financing for $9.8 million. Intersouth Partners, an active and experienced early stage venture fund located in Durham, NC, led the investment along with The Aurora Funds. New investors in this second round of financing include Becton Dickinson Ventures, The Trelys Funds, L.P., Tall Oaks Capital Partners and individuals.
"We are delighted with the progress that STEMCO has made toward addressing an important area of unmet clinical need," said Garheng Kong, principal with Intersouth Partners. "The Company launched its first product earlier this year and will enter clinical trials for another product later this year. With significant domain expertise in the life sciences industry, the StemCo team has a proven track record of developing technologies into products." "We especially like the business model of STEMCO," added Jeff Clark, Managing General Partner of The Aurora Funds. "STEMCO can build itself from early revenue rather than large quantities of venture capital dollars."
STEMCO Biomedical, Inc. was founded by world-class researchers at the Duke University Comprehensive Cancer Center and Stem Cell Transplant Program. These researchers developed STEMCO’s core technology over several years of steady research and active participation in transplanting stem cells into cancer patients. STEMCO has a clearly defined product development and release strategy for its hematopoietic stem cell (HSC) identification products. The market for the products being developed by STEMCO is very large; the transplant market alone is more than $1 billion annually. In addition, there are no high profile ethical concerns with the use of STEMCO’s products since the products use traditional and widely accepted sources of HSCs that are not derived from fetal or embryonic tissues. The expanded applications of STEMCO’s platform technology will include autoimmune diseases, anemias, tissue regeneration and cell plasticity. These additional applications give StemCo access to markets in excess of $5 billion annually.
"We are very pleased to have such a strong team of investors for our second institutional round of financing," said Jonathon Lawrie, CEO and President of STEMCO Biomedical, Inc. "The fundraising environment is difficult today but STEMCO was fortunate to partner with top-notch investors that believe in our mission to be the leader in therapeutic stem cell products."
About STEMCO Biomedical.
STEMCO Biomedical, Inc. was founded in 1999 and is located in the Research Triangle Park area of NC. The Company is engaged in the development, manufacture and distribution of a series of medical products designed to improve therapeutic transplantation of adult hematopoetic stem and progenitor cells derived from bone marrow, peripheral blood or umbilical cord blood. Addressing a market of more than $1 billion annually, the Company will have a series of products on the market starting in 2002 that identify, sort and custom-engineer stem cell grafts based upon cellular expression of ALDH resulting in what may be better, more effective stem cell transplants in the future. For more information on STEMCO, visit http://www.stemcobiomedical.com
About Intersouth Partners
Intersouth Partners, one of the nation’s most experienced early stage venture capital firms, has raised more than $500 million since 1985. As one of the largest early stage venture funds in the Southeast and Mid-Atlantic regions, it has invested in more than 70 companies, primarily in the life sciences and information technology industries. Intersouth funded some of the first venture-backed companies in North Carolina to go public and has been instrumental in funding start-ups in this region for nearly two decades. The company is based in Durham, NC. For more information on Intersouth Partners, visit http://www.intersouth.com
For further information please contact:
Jonathon Lawrie, Ph.D.,
President and CEO
STEMCO Biomedical Inc.,
2810 Meridian Parkway Suite 148
Durham NC 27614
919 484 2571
jlawrie@stemcobiomedical.com
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