Ann Arbor’s Lycera lands $11 million in VC investment

The venture capital continues to pile up at Lycera now that the Ann Arbor-based firm has taken in another $11 million in financing, bringing its total to $47 million over its three and a half years of existence.All of that money has allowed Lycera to hire five people this year, expanding its staff to 15 employees and 10 independent contractors, including a number of former Pfizer employees. That’s up from nine employees when we last checked in with the firm a year ago.”We’re still in the pre-clinical phase,” says Bill Sibold, CEO of Lycera. “We hope to be in trials with people next year. This money will help us get there.”That will mean another 20-25 percent increase in staff over the next year. Most of that expansion will go toward researches and development personnel. It’s just the next step in what is expected to be a eight-year process to commercialization.The pharmaceutical company is developing small molecule drugs for treating autoimmune diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis and lupus. The company got its start from research by University of Michigan Chemistry Prof Gary Glick. Source: Bill Sibold, CEO of LyceraWriter: Jon Zemke