Omeros Nabs $25M from Paul Allen, State Life Sciences Fund to Pursue Elusive Drug Targets
Summary
Omeros Nabs $25M from Paul Allen, State Life Sciences Fund to Pursue Elusive Drug Targets Xconomy Seattle — Seattle-based Omeros has raked in $25 million for its drug discovery technology from a couple of unusual suspects—billionaire Paul Allen and Washington state’s Life Sciences Discovery Fund.Vulcan and the Life Sciences Discovery Fund will be eligible for a percentage of the future profits from partnerships Omeros signs, and they will stand to collect royalties on product sales if the technology paves the way for new drugs against targets on cells known as G-protein coupled receptors (GPCRs).The deal provides an important new shot of cash for Omeros, which doesn’t have any moneymaking products on the market and didn’t raise as much capital for its drug development programs as it had hoped to in its IPO last year.As anyone following the pharma business knows, companies are desperately looking for new blockbusters like that to replace the revenues they will lose in coming years as patents expire and cheap generic copies emerge.If Omeros generates $1.5 billion in cumulative proceeds from its GPCR program, Vulcan and the state agency will get a 1 percent slice of the subsequent revenue.