MENLO PARK, Calif., July 14 /PRNewswire/ — Pacific Biosciences announced today that it has secured $100 million in a Series E private equity financing round. The proceeds will be used to fund the commercial development of the company’s innovative single-molecule, real-time (SMRT(TM)) DNA sequencing platform.
The transaction was co-led by Deerfield Capital Management and Intel Capital, Intel Corporation’s global investment organization. Other new investors included: Morgan Stanley, Redmile Group, T. Rowe Price, and a large financial institution. All previous investors participated in the financing, including: Mohr Davidow Ventures, Kleiner Perkins Caufield and Byers, Alloy Ventures, Maverick Capital, AllianceBernstein, DAG Ventures, and Teachers’ Private Capital.
“With the backdrop of a difficult market, we believe that this substantial investment by our current and new investors validates the promise of our SMRT(TM) technology to change the field of DNA sequencing and spark a true revolution in medical care,” said Hugh Martin, chairman and chief executive officer of Pacific Biosciences. “These funds from a combination of key institutional investors as well as Intel, a world class provider of semiconductor technology, will enable us to surge forward with an aggressive development program and stay on track to commercialize our technology in 2010.”
Pacific Bioscience’s SMRT(TM) technology enables, for the first time, the observation of natural DNA synthesis by a DNA polymerase as it occurs. The technology is distinguished by its long reads, fast run times, and high quality sequence data with less effort and cost compared to other available sequencing technologies. The company believes these advances will lead to a transformation in the field of DNA sequencing that will enable sequencing of individual genomes as part of routine medical care.
About Pacific Biosciences
Pacific Biosciences is a private company based in Menlo Park, California. The company was founded in 2004 with the goal of developing a transformative SMRT(TM) (single molecule real time) DNA sequencing platform that will become the new gold standard for genetic analysis. The SMRT(TM) technology is built upon two key innovations that overcome major challenges facing the field of DNA sequencing. The first is the SMRT(TM) chip, which enables observation of individual fluorophores against a dense background of labeled nucleotides by maintaining a high signal-to-noise ratio. The second are phospholinked nucleotides, which produce a completely natural DNA strand through fast, accurate, and processive DNA synthesis. The company has received an Advanced Sequencing Technology Award grant from the NHGRI (National Human Genome Research Institute) to develop the $1,000 genome. More information is available at http://www.pacificbiosciences.com.