Catalyst Biosciences, Inc., a privately held biotechnology company announced it has raised $30 million in its Series B financing. The company focuses on engineering and developing novel therapeutic protease products. This investment was led by Morgenthaler Ventures. Other companies participated in this investment: HealthCare Ventures and all of Catalyst's previous investors, including Sofinnova Ventures, Burrill & Company, RCT BioVentures and Novartis Venture Fund.

In connection with the financing, Dr. Ralph "Chris" Christoffersen of Morgenthaler Ventures and Augustine Lawlor of HealthCare Ventures will join the Catalyst Board of Directors.

Catalyst is focused on considerably increasing the therapeutic application of proteases through high-throughput protein engineering. The Company's product discovery platform includes methods to rapidly create and optimize tailor-made protease drug candidates, called Alterases, applicable across a wide spectrum of clinical categories. "We are extremely pleased that Catalyst has attracted a group of exceptional new investors who share our vision for therapeutic proteases as a breakthrough platform for drug development," said David O'Reilly, President of Catalyst. "This financing provides Catalyst with the resources required to move its first two internal programs into clinical development and to continue to expand our Alterase product engine." "Therapeutic proteases represent a class of molecules with the potential breadth and scope of antibodies, and with advantages including very high potency, automatic biomarker creation and rapid lead discovery," said Chris Christoffersen, general partner at Morgenthaler Ventures. "Catalyst is a very promising company that we believe has the opportunity to define and lead this new field, and to develop products to meet medical needs unmet by current approaches."