Led · Equity · Nov 2023

Genezen is a CDMO that supplies retroviral, lentiviral and adeno-associated viral (AAV) vectors. The company is based in Fishers, Indiana and is led by CEO and President Steven Favaloro. Genezen recently completed qualification of a 25,000 sq ft GMP viral vector facility in Fishers. It raised $18.5M in growth equity funding to support expansion. The company intends to use the funds to expand its viral vector development and manufacturing capacity and capabilities. The financing is positioned to bolster its CDMO operations and scale viral vector production.

Led · Equity · Jun 2023

Vernal Biosciences is a fully integrated contract development and manufacturing organization focused on manufacturing and formulating mRNA and LNP-mRNA. It offers end-to-end services including cell banking, plasmid DNA production, mRNA synthesis, and formulation into a variety of lipid chemistries, leveraging platform process and analytical technologies. The company is completing its first state-of-the-art GMP manufacturing facility, scheduled to be online July 2023, and is wrapping up cGMP manufacturing readiness for that site. Vernal plans to accelerate a second site next year to support larger-scale cGMP manufacturing for commercial mRNA drug products. Financially, Vernal announced a $20MM funding round led by Ampersand Capital Partners and Charles River Labs and previously completed a $21MM round in May 2022 that included Alloy Therapeutics. The company has scaled to 65 employees, added dozens of new customers, and increased scale by a factor of 20x. Vernal Biosciences is a Colchester, VT-based company that manufactures mRNA and formulates LNP-mRNA. It offers a complete range of mRNA-related services and products, including sequence design and screening support, scaled-down and scaled-up manufacturing of high-purity mRNA and LNP-mRNA, and platform process development technologies. The company plans to expand to full GMP manufacturing capabilities to support drug discovery through clinical development. Use cases cited include gene editing and regulation, cellular programming, vaccines, mRNA replacement, oncology, autoimmune conditions, and protein degradation. Led by CEO and founder Christian Cobaugh, Vernal recently closed a $21 million financing to support growth and its planned GMP buildout. The company’s board will include existing member Errik Anderson (Alloy Therapeutics) and new board members David Anderson (Ampersand) and Gustavo Mahler (Dynamk). Vernal Biosciences develops and provides high‑purity mRNA manufacturing services for research, preclinical, and planned clinical programs. The company offers manufacturing‑research‑use mRNA today while scaling a universal, Quality‑by‑Design platform to simplify regulatory interactions and accelerate client projects. Vernal is fine‑tuning processes to enable clients to move more quickly from discovery to clinical manufacturing without starting from scratch. The team is led by founder and CEO Christian Cobaugh, an mRNA veteran with prior process and manufacturing leadership at Omega Therapeutics, Translate Bio, Arcturus Therapeutics, and Alexion. Vernal is already engaging clients on research and preclinical projects and is scaling operations to add GMP clinical manufacturing capability. The company was founded in 2021 and is located in Colchester/Burlington, Vermont.

Led · Equity · Oct 2019

Arranta Bio, formed in May 2019 by Mark Bamforth and Iain Baird, is a CDMO focused on live biopharmaceutical products (LBPs) for microbiome pioneers. The company offers development and manufacturing services to clients seeking to develop and commercialize therapies targeting the human microbiome. It is establishing late clinical and commercial-ready capacity at a new facility in Watertown, Massachusetts. Arranta secured strategic ties with Thermo Fisher Scientific as part of its financing, giving it access to Thermo Fisher’s full suite of products and services. Under the arrangement Arranta will also provide materials to Thermo Fisher for use in gene therapy production. The company added Steve Favaloro as Chief Financial Officer and Lana Gladstein as Chief Legal Officer & General Counsel.