Prosetta, antiviral-drug developer, raises $2M
Prosetta, a San Francisco developer of new antiviral therapies, raised $2 million in early financing, VentureWire reports (subscription required). The company termed the funding a “series AAA” round that has the same terms as its earlier $1 million “series A” and $5 million “series AA” financings, but different valuations. Individual investors provided the entire funding, which values the company at over $20 million.
Prosetta, founded by Vishwanath Lingappa, Jaisri Lingappa and other UCSF academics, is working on small-molecule drugs — that is, compounds that can be taken orally — to disrupt the protein coats, or capsids, that viruses form to protect their genes. The company’s first candidate will target hepatitis C.
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About the Author, David P. Hamilton
David Hamilton has been writing for VentureBeat LifeScience since April 2007. He formerly spent 14 years as a reporter for the Wall Street Journal in its San Francisco and Tokyo bureaus. Prior to that, he spent several years as a reporter at Science Magazine and as a reporter/researcher for the New Republic, both in Washington.