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SENOMYX, INC. RAISES $10 MILLION IN SERIES B FINANCING TO FUND CHEMOSENSORY CHEMISTRY EFFORT
LA JOLLA (September 14, 2000) – Senomyx, Inc. announced today the completion of a $10,000,000 private placement of Series B preferred stock. These funds will be used to expand and accelerate the Company's combinatorial chemistry effort, which will enhance the world of smell and taste using new technologies under development by Senomyx.
The private placement was led by Dr. Alejandro Zaffaroni. Dr. Zaffaroni, best known for founding ALZA Corporation, has also played a key role in founding several successful biotechnology companies, including Affymax, Affymetrix, Symyx, and Maxygen.
Other new investors in the Company included the Baker Tisch Investments, LLC well known for its leadership in publicly traded technology companies. Other participants in the round included Bay City Capital, Domain Associates, Prospect Ventures, Kingsbury Capital Partners, and Rho Management.
The Company is pleased that all major Series A investors also participated in the Series B financing.
Dr. Lubert Stryer, Chairman of the Board and Chief Scientific Officer stated, "We are delighted and appreciate the enthusiasm of our new investors and the vote of confidence of our Series A investors, who have been with us since the start of the Company."
"At first, we focused on building an outstanding staff of receptor biology and genomics scientists led by Dr. Mark Zoller. We have now begun to accelerate the expansion of the staff in chemistry, automation, and informatics and have brought on board Dr. Klaus Gubernator as Vice President of Chemistry. This new round of funding will greatly enhance the application of chemosensory genomics and combinatorial chemistry toward the development of novel products for the multitude of applications involving taste and smell," noted Paul Grayson.
Senomyx is dedicated to becoming the world leader in the discovery and commercialization of products and services relevant to the biology, genomics and chemistry of chemosensation in a broad range of markets including consumer food, fragrance, cosmetic, therapeutic, household, agricultural and industrial applications. The Company is assembling a matrix of technologies including proprietary chemoreceptors involved in the detection, quantification, signal transduction, and perception of mediators and modulators of taste, olfaction and other sensory modalities. Senomyx has exclusive agreements with Harvard University, Johns Hopkins University, Rockefeller University, and the University of California regarding various enabling technologies in the field of chemosensation. Senomyx will utilize a range of recent advances in cellular and molecular biology, genomics, combinatorial chemistry, biomolecular screening, informatics, and other areas to create the first consumer genomics company. These technologies, developed to their full potential, will enrich the quality of life for consumers.
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