Versant-backed Northern, Mosaic merging

Two Versant Ventures portfolio companies, Northern Biologics Inc. (Toronto, Ontario) and Mosaic Biomedicals S.L. (Barcelona, Spain), will merge into a single oncology company based in Canada. The combined entity, which will be named Northern Biologics, expects to begin clinical studies next year of lead candidate MSC-1 to treat solid tumors. MSC-1, which came from Mosaic's pipeline, is a humanized antibody targeting leukemia inhibitory factor (LIF).

Versant also invested an undisclosed amount in an extension of Northern's series A round, while Celgene Corp. (NASDAQ:CELG) exercised an option to acquire certain rights to the MSC-1 program. Northern CEO Stefan Larson declined to discuss the specific terms, but said the funds should support the company through clinical development of MSC-1. Versant was the sole investor in Northern's $10 million series A round in 2014 (see BioCentury Extra, Dec. 10, 2014). ...