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Nancy Stagliano, CEO of iPierian and True North: Two distinct plays for investors, partners.
After using its stem cell technology to discover drugs, iPierian Inc.[1] and its backers are hoping that splitting into two companies and infusing them with a collective $30 million will bring an Alzheimer’s disease therapy and autoimmune drug to market faster.
The financing was co-led by SR One[2] — the venture capital arm of drug giant GlaxoSmithKline — Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers[3] and MPM Capital. All of iPierian’s existing investors participated in the round.
Rajeev Dadoo of SR One will join the boards of both iPierian and its spinout company, True North Therapeutics.
How the money will be split between iPierian and True North wasn’t disclosed. The companies will share space in iPierian’s Gateway Boulevard home in South San Francisco, and Nancy Stagliano[4] , who came to iPierian two years ago, will be CEO of both companies.
Splitting into two companies — and focusing iPierian as a product company and not a stem cell technology platform play — will help iPierian and True North “attract the right kinds of partners,” Stagliano said. It also could have tax implications for investors, though Stagliano said she didn’t know what tax benefits the split could induce.
IPierian will focus on IPN-007, a drug that will target the tau protein that researchers have implicated as a player in Alzheimer’s devastating spread across the brain.
IPierian expects to file an investigational new drug application for IPN-007 with the Food and Drug Administration yet this year, Stagliano said. That would make it the first monoclonal antibody created from stem cell technology to be weighed by the FDA.
Ron Leuty covers biotech, higher education and China for the San Francisco Business Times.
References
- ^ iPierian Inc. (www.bizjournals.com)
- ^ SR One (www.bizjournals.com)
- ^ Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers (www.bizjournals.com)
- ^ Nancy Stagliano (www.bizjournals.com)
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