Hair loss treatment firm Follica grows funds with 7.5Million
The company is still in the development phase and plans to use the funding to advance the hair-loss treatment product
June 2010
Follica Inc., a biotechnology firm focused on developing hair loss
treatments, has raised $7.5 million in an equity financing round,
according to a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange
Commission.
The company’s previous investors include Waltham-based Polaris
Venture Partners, Boston-based PureTech Ventures and InterWest
Partners, of California.
All three venture capital firms were included in the current
regulatory filing as well.
The company splits its operations between the mid-Atlantic region –
Mendham, N.J., and the University of Pennsylvania – and Boston,
according Follica co-founder and PureTech Ventures managing director
Daphne Zohar. "We sort of have activities in multiple places," Zohar
said. Development of drug delivery and devices are still taking
place in Boston.
Follica specializes in treating androgenetic alopecia, a male and
female pattern hair loss, and other hair loss disorders. The company
is still in the development phase and plans to use the funding to
advance the hair-loss treatment product. "A lot of these potential
customers are wondering why Follica isn't saying more," Zohar said.
Because it's in the development phase, it may seem like it's taking
a while, she noted, "but things are moving quickly."
The company raised a Series B financing round in August 2008,
pulling in $11 million. Then in May 2009, it replaced its founding
CEO Daphne Zohar, now managing partner of Puretech Ventures, with
current president and CEO William Ju, former COO of PTC
Therapeutics.
Follica was founded as a joint venture by PureTech Ventures and
dermatologists from Harvard University, the University of California
at San Francisco and the University of Pennsylvania.
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