Innate Pharma raises Euro 15m in intermediate financing round

Innate Pharma, a French biopharmaceutical company specialising in innate immunity, has raised Euro 15m in a third round of financing.

In addition to existing shareholders, the round includes two further international investors: the Danish biopharmaceutical company Novo Nordisk, and NIF Ventures, Japan's leading venture capital firm.

The new round will enable Innate to continue its current clinical development programmes and begin developing new candidate molecules identified by its research division.

The company specialises in cancer immunotherapeutics, and is the first company to develop immunomodulating agents targeting non-conventional lymphocytes. The company has currently two products in Phase I of clinical development in cancer.

Innate was founded in 1999, and raised Euro 40m in private funding since inception in three rounds of financing. It has 42 employees as of July 2004.

'The arrival of a Japanese investor opens up the possibilities of developing our business in Japan, the number two market worldwide for pharmaceuticals,' said Herve Brailly, ceo at Innate Pharma. 'Furthermore, the fact that Novo Nordisk is ready to invest in Innate a few months after concluding a partnership deal with us shows how confident it is in Innate's technology and in the team that is implementing it.'