Tuesday, September 23, 2014

Avalon Ventures, GlaxoSmithKline Team On Two New Startups

San Diego-based venture capital investor Avalon Ventures and biopharmaceuticals firm GlaxoSmithKline said Monday that the two have teamed up to fund and launch up to 10, early stage life science companies. The two have initially funded two new companies, Silarus Therapeutics and Thyritope Biosciences, providing both of those companies $10M each in a Series A funding. Both of those new drug discovery startups will be located in San Diego, at COI Pharmaceuticals, the biotech research facility recently established by Avalon Ventures. According to Avalon Ventures and GSK, they will provide up to $495M to fund those ten new companies. The deal had been inked in April of 2013, part of an effort by GSK to help get more startups from academia into the industry.

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