Pappas Capital Announces the Passing of…

Anthera Pharmaceuticals, a specialty pharmaceutical company developing therapies for the treatment of serious inflammatory diseases, today announced it closed an initial $36 million in venture financing. The funding was co-led by VantagePoint Venture Partners and Sofinnova Ventures and are joined by Pappas Ventures, Mitsubishi International Corporation, along with Series A-1 investors Sears Capital Management and SIM Equity. Eli Lilly and Company and Shionogi & Co., Ltd. also received equity as part of Anthera’s obligations under the recently announced license agreement. Annette Bianchi, Managing Director, and co-Head of VantagePoint’s Healthcare Practice Group and Jim Healy, General Partner of Sofinnova Ventures were named to the Board of Directors.