Follica Raise 11 Million for Hair Loss Treatment Approach
Aug 2008
Follica Inc., a privately held developer of novel therapies for androgenetic alopecia and other hair follicle disorders, today announced an $11 million Series B financing round. Polaris Venture Partners led the financing and existing investors Interwest Partners and PureTech Ventures participated.
Androgenetic alopecia is male and female pattern hair loss in genetically susceptible men and women.
The company also announced several new additions to its team. Two new members joined the Follica board, including Mr. G. Kirk Raab, former CEO Genentech, COO Abbott, and chairman, Connetics. Mr. Raab will serve as Follica’s chairman.
The other new board member is Dr. Kevin Bitterman, principal at Polaris Venture Partners. Raab and Bitterman will join existing board members Daphne Zohar, Follica CEO and PureTech Ventures managing partner, and Mr. Chris Ehrlich, general partner, Interwest Partners.
“Polaris is thrilled to join PureTech and Interwest in helping to build Follica,” said Bitterman. “The cutting-edge biology on which the company was founded allows Follica to address hair loss and multiple other conditions with an entirely novel mechanism of action. The combination of world-class founders George Cotsarelis, Rox Anderson and Vera Price, and the enormous unmet need in the aesthetic dermatology space make this a tremendously exciting company.”
In addition, Dr. Samir Mitragotri of the University of California at Santa Barbara (UCSB), a leading expert in transdermal drug delivery, will join Follica’s Scientific Advisory Board. The company also welcomed Mr. Scott Kellogg (formerly of Sontra Medical, Ultracision, and Ethicon Endosurgery) as vice president of operations and promoted Dr. Stephen Prouty (formerly of Johnson & Johnson’s skin biology group) to vice president of research.
