Xerion raises Euro 12.3 Million in a Third Round of Financing to Progress Pre-Clinical Development of Antibody Pipeline

8 October 2002. Martinsried, Germany, and Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA, October 8, 2002 - Xerion Pharmaceuticals, a transatlantic integrated biopharmaceutical company, today announced the successful closing of its third financing round of Euro 12.3 million. New investor Heidelberg Innovation led the round. Nextech Ventures joined and co-led as a new investor. Existing investors 3i, Burrill & Company, IKB Venture Capital and BioM AG also participated.

“Xerion combines a proprietary proven technology with an experienced management and a convincing business strategy. We see a great potential for Xerion to become a major player in its field,” Jörg Ruppert, Investment Manager of Heidelberg Innovation, commented after the closing.

“This closing is a major achievement of Xerion’s management and people. It is a great endorsement of Xerion’s technology and product development potential that the company has been able to expand and strengthen its investor base with well-known institutions and raise such a significant amount of money despite the challenging market conditions,” said Olivier Litzka, Investment Manager at 3i.

Markus Ewert, President and CEO of Xerion, explained: “We are now well positioned to further strengthen our R&D efforts. These funds will enable us to move our antibody leads against validated oncology and cardiovascular targets quickly into pre-clinical and clinical development.”

Peter Biewald, CFO added: “We are now looking forward to attract additional investors for a second closing within the next six months to extend the momentum we have already achieved.” 

Xerion Pharmaceuticals is a privately held transatlantic biopharmaceutical company that bridges the process from target discovery to drug development in an unprecedented manner: Integrated functional identification and evaluation of disease relevant drug targets is followed by therapeutic antibody development against these high quality targets. These competencies enable Xerion and its partners to advance into the drug development process at accelerated speed. Its functional proteomics platform (Xcelerate® and XCALIbur®) directly addresses protein function, enabling rapid and precise target identification and validation. Xerion is headquartered in Martinsried, Germany, and its subsidiary Xerion Pharmaceuticals Inc. is based in Cambridge, MA, USA. The Company has license and collaborative agreements with Altana Pharma AG, Cambridge Antibody Technology Ltd., Procorde GmbH, and several research institutes.

Heidelberg Innovation BioScience Venture is a venture capital fund with a proven track record for investment of private equity exclusively in biotechnology/life sciences and medtech companies in Western Europe.

Nextech Venture, L.P. is a US limited partnership with CHF 70 million under management and with its principle office in Zurich. The investment focus is on early stage life science and enabling technologies in Europe.

For further information contact:
Xerion Pharmaceuticals AG           Xerion Pharmaceuticals Inc.
Tobias Lehmacher                        Yukari Y. Perrella
Fraunhoferstr.                              9 One Broadway, Suite 600
82152 Martinsried, Germany         Cambridge, MA 02142, U.S.A.
Tel: +49-(89)-86307-131               Tel: +1-(617)-621-7123
Fax: +49-(89)-86307-111              Fax: +1-(617)-621-7124
E-mail: t.lehmacher@xerion-pharma.com  E-mail: y.perrella@xerion-pharma.com