Novacea raises $25M in private placing

California, USA-headquartered Novacea has announced the closing of the second tranche of its Series C financing. Proceeds to the company totaled over $25.0 million. Participants in the fundraising included: Apax Partners, Domain Associates, New Enterprise Associates, ProQuest Investments, Versant Ventures and Sofinnova Ventures.

The company will use this additional funding primarily to launch its Phase III clinical trial with DN-101 in advanced prostate cancer. The trial (ASCENT-2) is set to begin enrolling patients during the first quarter of 2006. It will be conducted at over 150 clinical sites in the USA and Canada.

Howard Scher, chief, Genitourinary Oncology Service and Wayne Calloway chair in urologic oncology of the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, New York, will serve as study chairman. Ronald De Wit of Erasmus University, Rotterdam, the Netherlands and Kim Chi of the Vancouver Cancer Center, Canada will serve as co-chairmen.