Drug start-up Lycera nets $36M in venture cash

Plymouth-based pharmaceutical start-up Lycera Corp. grabs $36 million in venture capital.

Excerpt:

Amid one of the toughest markets for start-up firms in years, a small company spun off from research done at the University of Michigan announced Thursday it will receive $36 million in venture capital financing.

Lycera Corp., a Plymouth pharmaceutical start-up, said the investment will come from three venture capital firms outside Michigan and one in Ann Arbor. The deal gives a boost to the state's growing entrepreneurial community when venture capital dollars for new companies are scarce. It's also one of the bigger venture investments that the state has seen in the last year.

Lycera is developing a new class of drugs that it hopes will more effectively treat rheumatoid arthritis, lupus and other autoimmune diseases than what's available. The financing will enable the nearly 3-year-old company to test its drugs in clinical trials.

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