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Cancer Diagnostics Firm Immunicon Gets $25M Round Four July 11, 2003 HUNTINGDON VALLEY, PA - Immunicon, a biomedical company focusing on the development and commercialization of cell-based diagnostic and related products, announced it has raised $24.8 million in what the company is calling its Series F-2 financing, its fourth institutional financing round. James Murphy, the company's chief financial officer, said that terms for the latest investment were the same as the first Series F round, which was led by Burrill and Co. All the of the round's other previous investors also returned for the new funding, including TL Ventures, Claneil Enterprises, Johnson & Johnson Development Corp., Canaan Partners, Anthem Capital, Foundation Medical Partners, Wheatley Partners, MDS Capital, The Cleveland Clinic Foundation, equity4Life, and MedCapital Investments. Immunicon has been in operations since 1983, Mr. Murphy said, and during the late eighties and early nineties raised a series of "very very small outside financings." The company, which was originally focused on developing cell therapy products using magnetic separation techniques, shifted modes in the mid-nineties when it began it began using similar magnetic technology in the development of cancer diagnostics. In 1999, Immunicon raised $10 million in a Series D recapitalization round to fund this shift, and since then has raised three more rounds, taking in a total of just over $86 million in venture capital. The company's flagship Celltracks technology integrates patented magnetic nanoparticles (ferrofluids) with associated reagents to make the ferrofluids biologically active with magnetic devices for cell separation, manipulation, collection, and presentation of cells, in particular rare cells. While the technology has a myriad applications, Immunicon has so far focused product development on cancer diagnostics based on circulating tumor cells. After the latest investment, Immunicon has $40 million in cash on hand, sufficient capital to last for at least two years, Mr. Murphy said. Proceeds from the F-2 offering will be used for commercialization of platform technologies, with the launch of a first product to monitor late stage metastatic breast cancer anticipated before the year's end. The new funds will also be used for clinical trials to expand indications in cancer and the development of products in fields outside of cancer.http://immunicon.com [see related stories] © 2003 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All rights reserved.
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