Intarcia Therapeutics, Inc., a privately held biopharmaceutical company, announced recently the completion of a transaction to raise $50 million to support the development of its lead therapeutic candidates for the treatment of hepatitis C and type 2 diabetes.

The Company will use the proceeds to fund ongoing clinical development of its Omega DUROS® therapy for chronic hepatitis C, and to advance its diabetes development program into phase 1.

New Leaf Venture Partners, a new investor, led the round with participation by Quilvest Ventures, also a new investor, and existing investors including New Enterprise Associates (NEA), Venrock Associates, Alta Partners, Omega Fund and Granite Global Ventures.  James Niedel, MD, PhD, Managing Director of New Leaf Ventures, will join Intarcia’s Board of Directors with the closing of this transaction.

“We are very pleased to have New Leaf Venture Partners lead this round of financing and to have the major investors from prior rounds participate, as well”, said Alice Leung, President and CEO of  Intarcia.  “The successful completion of this transaction validates the significant progress the company has made in the last year, and allows us to accelerate the development of our hepatitis C and type 2 diabetes programs.”

Intarcia is developing its Omega DUROS product, which delivers omega interferon using the DUROS system, to improve the treatment of hepatitis C by offering a more convenient and potentially safer and more efficacious therapy. The potent antiviral effects of omega interferon have been well established in earlier clinical trials using the injection form of omega interferon.  In December 2006, Intarcia successfully completed a phase 2 study of omega interferon injection in combination with ribavirin in patients with hepatitis C genotype-1.  The final results of this study will be presented on April 12, 2007 at the 42nd Annual Conference of the European Association for the Study of the Liver in Barcelona, Spain. The Company plans to commence enrollment of a clinical phase 1b dose-ranging study of Omega DUROS therapy for chronic hepatitis C in the second quarter of 2007.

In addition to expanding its proprietary development programs, the DUROS technology will allow Intarcia to explore partnering opportunities with pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies in disease areas where poor patient tolerance to therapy and inconvenient treatment regimens often prevent effective clinical outcomes. 

Intarcia Therapeutics, Inc. is a biopharmaceutical company developing therapeutics for patients with chronic diseases in which there are significant unmet medical needs.  Intarcia’s expertise and competitive edge reside in its ability to stabilize macromolecules and to deliver them in a constant and consistent manner via the proprietary DUROS drug delivery platform.  The initial programs that Intarcia is pursuing are in hepatitis C and type 2 diabetes.

For more information, please visit www.intarcia.com