Nereus Pharmaceuticals raises $23.6 million

Nereus Pharmaceuticals has announced the completion of a $23.6 millionsecond round of venture financing, led by Pacific Venture Group. The firm noted that new investors included Novartis Bioventure Fund, China Development Industrial Bank of Taipei, Blue Dot Capital of Singapore, the Hong Kong-based group Lotus Biosciences Ventures and Zurich, Switzerland-headquartered Swissfirst.

Kobi Sethna, Nereus' chief executive, said that the firm has been making significant progress toward the goal of establishing itself as a leader in the discovery and development of novel drugs from marine micro-organisms. He added that "we see the presence of such top-tier investors behind us as validation of our business plan," and went on to say that the funding will "lay the groundwork for the continued expansion of our microbial drug discovery program, expand our hiring efforts and increase the development efforts of our lead tumor necrosis factor-alpha synthesis/interleukin-1 inhibitor compound."