Friday, August 10, 2012

Prolacta Tops $1M In Philanthoropic Donations

Monrovia, California-based Prolacta Bioscience, the venture-backed company which is turning donated breast milk into human milk fortifier for premature babies, reported this week that it has donated more than $1M to various charitable organizations over the past five years. The firm makes donations in the name of mothers who contribute their excess milk to the company. Prolacta said that it has donated more than $406,000 to Susan G. Komen for the Cure, and $61,000 to Make-A-Wish, among other organizations. Prolacta takes and purifies those human milk donations, converting them into a number of compounds, including human milk fortifier which is fed to premature infants. The use of human milk helps avoid serious side effects that can occur with premature infants if they use cow-based milk. Prolacta is venture backed by such companies as Health Evolution Partners, Alta Partners, DFJ Frontier, Arcturus Capital, DFJ Mercury, Funk Ventures, Phillip Capital, Gideon Hixon Fund, and Draper Associates.

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