Deal in a Durham deli may lead to blood thinner

An idea hatched 4 1/2 years ago in a Durham deli is attracting the interest and investments of a growing number of deep-pocketed venture capital firms.

The latest haul is $23 million, which brings the total raised to $48.6 million.

Durham biotech company Regado Biosciences announced Tuesday that it had secured the cash to further develop a blood thinner that promises to make cardiovascular surgery safer.

A blood thinner called heparin has been used for heart patients for about 50 years. The drug prevents the blood from clotting and allows the use of heart-lung machines during surgery. But determining the right heparin dose for each patient is difficult, reversing its reaction is imprecise, and the risk of complications and other side effects is high.

Tests in healthy volunteers and patients have shown that Regado's blood thinner, REG1, is easy to dose, and its effect can be reversed within minutes.

"There's nothing like this out there or in development," said Sherrill Neff, managing partner at Quaker BioVentures. The Philadelphia venture capital firm, which has about $280 million under management, first invested in Regado 18 months ago and also participated in the most recent fundraiser.

Other investors in this round of fundraising included venture capital firms Caxton Advantage Life Sciences Fund of New York City, Domain Associates of Princeton, N.J., and Aurora Funds of Durham.

The investors said they are aware that REG1 still requires years of testing. And Regado will either have to raise more money or find a development partner to bring the drug combination to market. But they think REG1 has the potential to generate $1 billion in annual sales.

Heparin and other injectable blood thinners generate about $4.4 billion in annual sales. By 2010, the market is expected to exceed $7.5 billion.

In the United States, about 300,000 to 400,000 open heart bypass surgeries are performed annually to replace clogged blood vessels, and up to a million stents are placed to keep blood vessels from clogging, said Doug Gooding, Regado's chief executive.

Regado is testing the use of REG1 in both procedures.

REG1 is based on technology invented at Duke University. It came from the lab of researcher Bruce Sullenger, whose work also led to the creation of another Triangle biotech company, Argos Therapeutics. Argos is developing cancer therapies.

In September 2002, Sullenger called Jeff Clark, managing partner of Aurora, to talk about commercializing his idea for a blood thinner. Clark said they met at Saladelia, a deli in Durham.

"We couldn't blow our dough on fancy lunches," Clark said. "We had work to do."