Raven biotechnologies, inc., a privately held biotechnology company focused on the development of monoclonal antibody therapeutics for treating cancer, announced last week it has raised $48.3 million through a Series D financing led by new investor Vulcan Capital. Also participating in this financing round were new investors Biogen Idec New Ventures, CIDC Consultants Inc., and Mitsubishi UFJ Capital Co., Ltd, as well as existing investors Bear Stearns Health Innoventures, L.P., Pequot Ventures, Singapore's BioMedical Sciences Investment Fund Pte Ltd, Integra Ventures, U.S. Venture Partners, CMEA Ventures, Hambrecht & Quist Capital Management, LLC, Milepost Ventures, and Cogene Ventures. The company also announced that Michael Kranda, Managing Director at Vulcan Capital, has joined Raven’s board of directors. Prior to Vulcan, Mr. Kranda was COO at Immunex (now Amgen) Corporation. Montgomery & Co. LLC served as the exclusive placement agent for the Company.

"This financing demonstrates our investors’ confidence in our approach to developing novel antibody therapeutics for life-threatening conditions,” said William Rohn, CEO and Vice Chairman of Raven. “We are pleased with the addition of a quality group of new investors as well as the continued support of our existing investors. With these proceeds we will be able to aggressively move forward the clinical development program for RAV12 for gastrointestinal cancers as well as conduct pre-clinical work for a second product candidate. We have retained worldwide rights to RAV12 and expect to pursue strategic partnerships centered around our discovery platform on both a regional and global basis in the near future.”

Raven will use the funding for the ongoing RAV12 clinical development program, pre-clinical development of its second product, and general corporate purpose.

"We believe RAV12 has the potential to be a promising new therapy for GI cancers that affect millions of patients," said Michael Kranda, Managing Director at Vulcan Capital and new board member of Raven. "We are confident that Raven's approach will lead to additional new therapeutics for other cancers as well.