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Ventures West Invests in Oncopharmaceutical Company Celator Technologies Inc.· Company developing unique cancer therapy platform Vancouver, BC and Princeton, NJ, January 22, 2003 - Celator Technologies Inc., a private North American oncopharmaceutical company, announced today it has secured US $6.8 million in its first round of venture capital financing. Ventures West and Growthworks led the round, which also included Business Development Bank of Canada. The company had previously received seed funding from Genyous Life Sciences and Hearthstone Investments Ltd. Founded in 2000 by Drs. Lawrence Mayer and Marcel Bally, Celator is a spinoff of the British Columbia Cancer Agency, one of North America´s largest clinical cancer centers. The company is developing new technology for targeting synergistic combinations of rationally selected chemotherapeutic agents to sites of disease. This innovative and elegant approach seeks to modify the existing cancer chemotherapy discovery process by fixing the ratios at which drug combinations act to kill tumor cells. “To date, virtually all curative regimens for cancer rely on combination therapy but the scientific community has just begun to appreciate how dependent combination chemotherapy can be on the ratios of the individual agents,” explains CEO Dr. Andrew Janoff. “Since drugs are metabolized differently, you cannot guarantee the activity of any combination after it is injected. Celator’s technology allows us to fix synergistic ratios in pharmaceutical carriers so that they remain true after injection. We can design these carriers to target to tumors, giving us the opportunity to vastly improve on the positive results already achieved with combinations. Our technology will also allow us to quickly optimize the development of novel combinations.” Celator has assembled a world-class scientific and business team, consisting of prominent oncologists, Yale and Harvard researchers and clinicians, distinguished professors and veteran entrepreneurs, to create a truly North American biotech company. Research is located in Vancouver, British Columbia, while clinical and pharmaceutical development will be located in Princeton, New Jersey, the heart of the pharmaceutical industry of North America. “Celator’s proprietary technology promises to play an important role in the future of cancer chemotherapy,” adds Nancy Harrison, Senior Vice President of Ventures West and one of the most experienced biotech investors in Canada. “They are combining existing drugs that have already proven successful in the clinic. This approach increases the possibility of achieving a meaningful therapeutic benefit.” Cancer treatments constitute a US $16 billion market, which is projected to exceed US $24 billion by 2005. “There is a clear market opportunity for innovative products that significantly improve patient survival,” says Harrison. This round of financing will allow the company to further identify lead products and prepare for clinical trials. Currently Celator is designing products to be active against major tumor populations such as lung, colorectal, gastric, head and neck, pancreatic, and ovarian cancer. The company concurrently announced that Nancy Harrison of Ventures West and Pat Brady of Growthworks have joined Celator’s Board of Directors, which presently includes Dr. Andrew Janoff and Dr. Lawrence Mayer.
About Celator Technologies: Celator Technologies Inc. is a private North American biopharmaceutical company developing new technology for targeting combinations of rationally selected chemotherapeutic agents to sites of disease. Currently, the Company is focused on cancer and is utilizing established drugs selected for synergistic activity in rapid, cell-based assays. Celator is designing products to be active against major tumor populations such as lung, colorectal, gastric, head and neck, pancreatic, and ovarian cancer. For more information, visit www.celator.ca. About Ventures West: Ventures West Capital Ltd. is a privately held venture capital investment group that invests in early stage technology companies across North America from offices in Vancouver, Toronto and Ottawa. Since its founding in 1968, Ventures West has invested over $400 million in more than 125 companies. Ventures West has the people, the expertise, and the capital to develop emerging technology companies into market leaders. Examples of Ventures West portfolio companies in Biotechnology include Angiotech Pharmaceuticals Inc., Caprion Pharmaceuticals Inc, Salmedix Inc. and Stressgen Biotechnologies Corp. For more information, visit www.ventureswest.com.
For more information please contact: Dr. Andrew Janoff |
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