Prosensa raises EUR 18 million Series B financing

Leiden, The Netherlands, December 17, 2008 – Prosensa Holding B.V., a Netherlands based biopharmaceutical company focused on RNA interference therapeutics using exon skipping technology, today announced that it has closed an EUR 18 million series B financing round. The investor base will be strengthened by Gimv (Antwerp) and AGF (Paris). Current shareholders LSP and Abingworth, leading international investors based in Amsterdam and London respectively, and MedSciences Capital, also an existing shareholder, participated in the round as well.

Prosensa will use the funds to continue the development of its two lead programs in the field of Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy (DMD), through clinical proof of concept studies. Prosensa’s exon skipping technology uses oligoribonucleotides to restore production of dystrophin, the protein defective in DMD patients. These oligonucleotides are designed to remove an unwanted segment of the faulty DMD gene product, and represent a major step toward the development of an effective therapy for DMD. There is currently no curative therapy for this severely debilitating and life-threatening condition.

"We are delighted to have concluded this financing round in a difficult financial climate with a syndicate of highly experienced life sciences investors. The fact that we were able to raise significant funding at this moment in time confirms our belief that Prosensa’s innovative platform is a strong basis for growth and value creation. The funds raised will enable us to achieve clinical proof of concept with our key DMD program, in line with our goal of building Prosensa into a fully integrated biopharmaceutical company", said Gerard Platenburg, Prosensa's CEO. Following the closing of this financing round, Dr Jim Van heusden (Gimv) and Dr Rémi Droller (AGF) will join the Supervisory Board.

Dr Jim Van heusden commented: “Prosensa’s exon skipping technology is one of the most promising new approaches to treat DMD and a number of other genetic diseases. The current financing round will allow Prosensa to further show the full potential of its lead compound PRO-051, which so far produced exciting clinical data.”

Rémi Droller commented: “Prosensa offers a truly compelling investment opportunity: we have already seen promising clinical data emerging from Prosensa’s technology that can address important, unmet medical needs and this first class investment syndicate will provide the company with the resources to further develop a potential breakthrough therapy in DMD. AGF Private Equity is very pleased to support Prosensa’s pioneering work.”

link to this press release