San Diego-based PharmAkea Therapeutics Inc. is receiving $35 million in a three-year contract with Summit, N.J.-based pharma giant Celgene Corp. The two companies will collaborate on cancer and fibrotic diseases.
San Francisco-based Bay City Capital has invested an additional $10 million in Series A financing to support the growth of PharmAkea’s infrastructure, it said in a statement.
PharmAkea is a privately held startup that was launched in 2012 with seed funding from Celgene. Under the new contract, Celgene and PharmAkea will work to advance small-molecule therapies.
Under that contract, Celgene (Nasdaq: CELG) will have exclusive access to the compounds developed by PharmaAkea. Celgene closed day trading Oct. 4 at $157.27, with a market capitalization of $64.68 billion.
— Meghana Keshavan