Series A round totals $33mm for Flexion Therapeutics, which adds more later

Drug development start-up Flexion Therapeutics has completed a $33mm Series A financing led by Versant Ventures, which also took part in the company's $3mm seed round in November 2007. Other founding investors participating in this round were 5AM Ventures and Sofinnova Partners. With a business model based on Lilly Research Lab division Chorus, Flexion hopes to take candidates through proof-of-concept faster and cheaper than the traditional development process. The company expects to soon announce partnerships it has in the works with three as-yet-unannounced pharmacos.