Osage University Partners Newsletter: December 2011

Osage University Partners Newsletter: December 2011

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  50 Monument Road Bala Cynwyd, PA 19004 484.434.2255—T 484.434.2256—F www.osagepartners.com December 2011 Dear Colleagues and Friends, Osage University Partners has had a busy and productive fall, closing on four new investments, with a fifth in final diligence. In total, the Fund will have completed seven new investments in 2011, which brings our portfolio to 16 companies. The pickup in investment pace is a welcomed surprise, and whether this increased activity is a momentary blip or a sustainable pickup is unknown. Over the past year, our sector diversification strategy has provided ballast for our Fund during a time when both the life science and cleantech sectors faced significant headwinds. Life science venture firms continue to shrink or disappear, leaving a reduced pool of capital available for early stage investments. We have also seen sector rotation away from capital intense cleantech investments by some VC’s. However, as noted in several recent blog posts, there have been positive trends in M&A and IPO activity, and corporate investors across multiple sectors have become quite active. Presently, we still expect 2012 to be a modest year in terms of financing activity, but we are encouraged by the recent level of investment activity and remain cautiously optimistic. New Investments Our most recent investments are listed below and represent a wide breadth of industry sectors (healthcare services, medical devices, diagnostics and therapeutics) and company development stages (Series A through Series C). • Clinipace Worldwide is a contract resource organization (CRO) that has developed a proprietary on-demand software platform based on technology from the University of Florida to more efficiently manage Phase I-IV clinical trials. Operating in seven countries, Clinipace serves small and medium-sized biopharmaceutical and medical device companies, as well as academic medical centers. The company’s Series C financing round was led by Morgan Stanley Venture Partners, with participation from existing investor Hatteras Venture Partners. Osage participated in this oversubscribed round through its partnership with the University of Florida. • Tangent Medical is a development stage medical device company from the University of Michigan that has designed a novel peripheral intravenous (PIV) access system to overcome problems associated with conventional PIV fluid delivery systems. Through its partnership with the University of Michigan, Osage invested in this highly sought-after Series A round alongside lead investors Arboretum Ventures and Flagship Ventures. • Sera Prognostics is developing a molecular diagnostic to assess the risk of preterm birth. The company has licensed novel biomarkers from Brigham Young University and the University of Utah. Sera Prognostics is led by the former President of Myriad Genetics, who during his tenure, built Myriad’s revenues from $2 million to over $300 million. We invested in a heavily oversubscribed Series A round alongside InterWest Partners, Domain Associates and Catalyst Health Ventures. • Cleave Biosciences is a Caltech spinoff that is developing novel oncology therapies by targeting protein degradation pathways. The scientific founder is one of the world’s foremost experts on protein degradation, and his last company was acquired in 2009 by Onyx Pharmaceuticals. Osage
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  invested in atranched Series A financing round alongside US Venture Partners, 5AM, OrbiMed, Clarus Ventures and Astellas Ventures. Company Tracking We continue to actively track the progress of your start-ups in order to identify potential financing opportunities, and our internal database has grown accordingly over the past six months. We are now actively following 1,088 start-ups, which we define as any company that has received third-party funding or is likely to receive funding over the next 12 months (this number includes early, nascent technologies as well). Using these data, below is a sector distribution of the companies we are tracking in the Osage database. The chart on the left shows the overall sector distribution of the companies in our database, while the chart on the right shows a breakdown of bioscience companies into industry subsectors. Currently, 51% of the Fund’s capital is invested in life science companies and 49% in physical science companies. Sector  D  istribution   Bio  Subsectors     Osage Blog We encourage you to continue reading and contributing to our blog at www.blogoup.com. The blog provides commentary on investment and technology trends that are of interest to members of the university innovation community. You might find several recent posts to be of interest, including Pharma-Academic collaborations, a feature on rare diseases, and the academic drug discovery landscape. 2 Osage University Partners
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  Team Recently, we havebeen focusing intensively on building out our team in order to provide deeper support in the life sciences. In January, we will announce the hiring of a new Partner at Osage who will spearhead our life science efforts. We think you will be pleased with the quality of our new partner on many dimensions, including the quality of his investment experience, scientific pedigree and reputation in the venture industry. We look forward to introducing you to our new Partner in early 2012. We also strongly encourage communication, so please feel free to contact any of us with additional company opportunities, questions, or suggestions. Thank you for your continued support, and we wish you, and your offices, all the best in 2012. Portfolio Companies Company Description University Co-investors Developing new molecular imaging agents Alta Partners, Eli Lilly capable of identifying Alzheimer’s Disease Penn Ventures, Pfizer Ventures, at its earliest stages Safeguard Scientifics Cleave Biosciences is developing novel 5AM, USVP, OrbiMed, Clarus therapeutics targeting the Ubiquitin- Caltech Ventures, Astellas Ventures Proteosome System (UPS) A global digital clinical research organization Morgan Stanley Venture U of Florida (dCRO) Partners, Hatteras Ventures Biopharmaceutical company dedicated to Quaker BioVentures, Domain developing and commercializing novel Penn Associates, MedImmune therapeutic Arginase inhibitors Ventures, NewSpring Capital Developing and commercializing advanced Burrill & Company, Khosla bio-fuels, the new generation of bio-based Caltech Ventures, Total Energy Fund, fuels and chemicals Virgin Green Fund The Column Group, Alta Novel vaccine technologies for infectious and Caltech Partners, Versant Ventures, malignant diseases ProQuest Developing the next generation of receptor Celtic Pharma, HBM tyrosine kinase inhibitors for the treatment of Yale BioCapital, Purdue Pharma cancer Unique technology platform to manufacture a August Capital, Lux Capital, new breed of monolithic opto-electronic Caltech NEA, Sevin Rosen Funds devices in a low cost CMOS process Developing electronic circuits that can stretch Penn up to 400% North Bridge Ventures U of Illinois Proprietary biomarkers that are predictive of BYU Domain Associates, InterWest, preterm birth U of Utah Catalyst Ventures Osage University Partners 3
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  DC to ACenergy conversion devices for the Battery Ventures, Rho U of Illinois solar industry Ventures NovaCath™ IV delivery system Michigan Arboretum Ventures, Flagship   Biogen IDEC, Clarus Developing safer and more effective drugs for Ventures, MedImmune Rockefeller autoimmune and inflammatory diseases Ventures, Thomas McNerney & Partners, Venrock 4 Osage University Partners