Gates Foundation leads Arsanis' $45.5M series D

Infectious disease company Arsanis Inc. (Waltham, Mass.) raised $45.5 million in a series D round led by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation (Seattle. Wash.), a new investor. Also participating were new investors GV and Alexandria Venture Investments, as well as existing investors OrbiMed, Polaris Venture Partners, SV Health Investors, NeoMed, EMBL Ventures and the Anna Maria and Stephen Kellen Foundation.

The Gates Foundation’s participation is part of its Program-Related Investments initiative, in which it seeks to invest in technologies to lower the cost and improve the quality of global healthcare, advancing the foundation's charitable objectives. Arsanis will conduct discovery research in neonatal Staphylococcus aureus sepsis and may receive additional funding to advance a candidate. The foundation also may opt to fund up to two more discovery programs (see BioCentury, July 16, 2012)...