Synta Pharmaceuticals Corp., an emerging pharmaceutical company, announced the closing of a fourth private financing round in the amount of $80 million. Participants in this financing included most existing investors (Caxton Group, Galleon Group, AIG SunAmerica, and Aperture Partners, among others) as well as a significant group of new institutional and individual investors. This biotech venture round is the largest nationwide in 2004.

Synta Pharmaceuticals is represented by Nixon Peabody LLP with Boston partner Michael Barron leading the private financing team. Since Synta's formation in 2002, Nixon Peabody has helped it raise over $200 million in private financing.

Synta Pharmaceuticals is focused on discovering, developing, and commercializing products for extending and enhancing the lives of patients with severe medical conditions. Synta has a diverse pipeline of first-in-class, small-molecule drug candidates targeting major unmet medical needs in large therapeutic markets -- chronic inflammatory diseases, solid-tumor cancers, and diabetes.

Nixon Peabody LLP is one of the 50 largest law firms in the United States with more than 600 attorneys working in 15 major practice areas. The firm's size, diversity, and advanced technological resources enable it to offer comprehensive legal services to individuals and organizations of all sizes in local, state, national, and international matters.