Biotech Values

[DewDiligence]

Re: Alios BioPharma’s ‘hyperglycosylated’ interferon for HCV

Thanks, ghmm. I’ll add this to the “HCV: Most Likely to Succeed” post.
Alios’ own PR follows. Note the comment about product candidates (plural).

http://www.marketwire.com/press-release/Alios-Biopharma-949090.html

›Alios BioPharma, Inc. Completes First Closing of Series A Financing With Commitment of $24 MM from 3 Top-Tier Investors

SOUTH SAN FRANCISCO, CA -- (Marketwire) -- 02/12/09 -- Alios BioPharma, Inc. announced today that it has concluded the first closing of its Series A preferred stock financing with a commitment from new investors of $24 million. The first tranche of $8.4 million has been completed, led by Novo Ventures and Novartis Ventures with participation from the Roche Venture Fund. Jack B. Nielsen, Novo Ventures, will serve as its Chairman of the Board. Also joining current members Raymond F. Schinazi, Ph.D., D.Sc. and Lawrence M. Blatt, Ph.D. on the Alios Board of Directors is Campbell Murray, M.D., Novartis Ventures and Carole Nuechterlein, Roche Venture Fund. will sit as an observer.

"We look forward to working closely with our new investors and members of the Board of Directors to build our company and successfully develop our pipeline," said Lawrence M. Blatt, Ph.D., Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Alios. "Several viral diseases remain difficult to treat and represent areas of significant unmet medical need. We view the Alios product candidates as a complementary approach to existing antiviral therapies where the complexity of these diseases requires treatment with multiple agents with differing mechanisms of actions."

About Alios BioPharma

Alios BioPharma, Inc., an emerging biotechnology company headquartered in South San Francisco, California, is developing novel medicines to treat diseases in virology by activating pathways in the innate immune system. Alios is pursuing the development of small-molecule and protein therapeutics, each addressing major commercial market opportunities.‹