Vitae's Debt Financing: Crucial Lifeline in a Tightening Financial Market

Roughly one week after GlaxoSmithKline gave Vitae Pharmaceuticals back rights to its renin inhibitor, the biotech signed a $13 million loan deal with Silicon Valley Bank and Oxford Finance, providing a cash runway at least into 2010. The cash lifeline was relatively small in dollar value but significant for even happening in the first place. The hard economic times have all but shut down the venture capital supply, leaving serious questions about money strategies for other biotechs.