Two New Members Appointed to Board of Directors
Cambridge, MA, November 6, 2002—BioTrove, Inc. announced today that it raised
$5.25M in a second round of private equity financing, from a syndicate
of new investors, to expand the company’s two core platforms that
improve the efficiency and productivity of drug discovery. The round was
led by Catalyst Health and Technology Partners, and includes investments
from CB Health Ventures, Zero Stage Capital and BioFrontier Partners.
In addition, the company appointed two new directors, Mr. Joshua S. Phillips,
a managing director at Catalyst Health and Technology Partners, and Dr.
Enrico Petrillo, a general partner at CB Health Ventures LLC.
BioTrove is addressing the demanding pressure in drug discovery to screen
more targets, find high quality leads, and develop more effective assays
through the development of its proprietary Living
Chip™ and Lab-on-a-Tape™
technologies. Consisting of a high-density array of through-holes in a
planar substrate, the Living Chip enables the rapid initiation and parallel
analysis of up to 24, 576 samples in nanoliter-scale reaction volumes,
far exceeding the throughput capacity of current technologies. The Lab-on-a-Tape
system combines nanoliter volumes with automated high throughput analysis
for rapid screening and assay development. BioTrove has achieved its first
commercial collaboration with Pfizer, Inc. in an agreement involving Lab-on-a-Tape.
“This financing is a strong endorsement of the substantial progress
we have made in developing our core nanofluidic platforms and validates
the potential value our technologies bring to customers,” said Colin
J.H. Brenan, Ph.D., President and Chief Executive Officer of BioTrove.
“These funds will significantly strengthen our ability to address
market opportunities in drug discovery, genomic screening and protein
engineering. Having assembled such a strong group of investors, we can
now leverage the experience and resources needed to further build the
company.”
“We are pleased to be a part of the BioTrove team as it commercializes
two exciting nanofluidic platforms that will bring dramatic benefits to
the drug discovery process," said Joshua S. Phillips of Catalyst
Health and Technology Partners. He added, "These technologies will
significantly reduce assay development time, reagent costs, screening
time and expense, enabling more rapid discovery.”
“We believe BioTrove’s nanofluidic technology is a powerful
new approach as an integrated platform for drug discovery,” said
Dr. Enrico Petrillo of CB Health Ventures LLC. He added, “We are
proud to support BioTrove as the company moves into the next phase of
corporate development and commercialization of its unique systems, further
positioning BioTrove as a leader in the field of nanofluidic drug discovery
and development.”
Joshua Phillips brings to BioTrove’s Board considerable experience
and multifaceted perspectives in building businesses. In addition to venture
capital, Mr. Phillip’s career has included strategy consulting, management,
and engineering at Pratt and Whitney Aircraft, Russelectric, Inc. and
the Lucas Group. Josh's investment interests at Catalyst span both the
life sciences and technology markets, with particular interest in drug
discovery tools and enterprise software. Mr. Phillip’s previous investments
at Catalyst include Novazyme Pharmaceuticals, Inc. and Castel, Inc. Mr.
Phillips earned his BE in Electrical Engineering and Mathematics from
Vanderbilt University and his MBA from Harvard Business School.
Dr. Enrico Petrillo is a General Partner of CB Health Ventures, LLC and
brings to BioTrove’s Board of Directors a strong background in strategic
management, venture capital and private equity financing for pharmaceutical,
healthcare and biotechnology industries. Prior to joining CB Health Ventures,
he served as Senior Consultant from 1984-1996 and as Partner and Head
of Healthcare Commercialization from 1991-1996 at Fletcher Spaght. He
is presently an Adjunct Assistant Professor of Medicine at Boston University
School of Medicine and Boston Medical Center. Dr. Petrillo serves as a
director on the boards of U.S. Genomics, Inc., Spherics, Inc., and Morphotek,
Inc. In addition, he was a venture investor in eBenX (NASDAQ: EBNX), and
also contributed to Exact Sciences (NASDAQ: EXAS) and Quovadex (formerly
XCare.net) (NASDAQ: QVDX) as a venture investor and board member. Dr.
Petrillo received his BS and MD degrees from Tufts University and its
School of Medicine.
About BioTrove
BioTrove Inc. is a privately held biotechnology company focused on leveraging
revolutionary micro- and nano-scale engineering solutions to overcome
current bottlenecks in pharmaceutical and biotechnology drug discovery.
BioTrove has two core nanofluidic platforms: the Living Chip™ and
the Lab-on-a-Tape™. BioTrove offers integrated nanoliter storage
and ultra high throughput screening solutions for drug discovery, genetic
engineering, diagnostics and materials science.
About Catalyst Health and Technology Partners
Catalyst Health
and Technology Partners is a venture capital firm dedicated to helping
promising early-stage health care, life science, and technology ventures
grow. The firm focuses on investment opportunities including drug discovery,
medical devices, biopharmaceuticals, drug delivery, convergence and software.
About CB Healthcare Fund
CB Health Ventures
manages $150 million of private equity funds focused on investment opportunities
in life sciences, medical devices, healthcare services and medical information
technology.
About Zero Stage Capital
Founded in 1981, Zero
Stage Capital, a Cambridge, MA-based venture capital firm with offices
in Connecticut and Rhode Island, invests in emerging growth companies
in the information technology, communications, life sciences, and energy
technology sectors. Zero Stage Capital manages seven balanced and diversified
funds that provide support for businesses at every stage of development.
The firm has over $400 million in capital under management and has invested
in more than 100 companies.
About BioFrontier Partners Inc.
BioFrontier Partners,
Inc. is a leading Japanese venture capital firm focused on life sciences
with more than $100 million under management. Since its founding in 1999,
BioFrontier Partners has invested in start-up companies in the following
areas: biotechnology, pharmaceuticals, genomics, proteomics, agricultural
biotechnology, natural products, medical devices, gene therapy and drug
discovery. BioFrontier Partners is headquartered in Tokyo and has a U.S.
office in San Diego, CA.
For more information contact:
Dr. Colin Brenan,
President and Chief Executive Officer, BioTrove
Inc.
Karla MacDonald,
Vice President, Feinstein
Kean Healthcare
(617) 577-8110
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