San Francisco's Symic Biomedical Nabs $25 Million from Eli Lilly's Venture Arm and $1.5 Million from NIH

San Francisco's Symic Biomedical Nabs $25 Million from Eli Lilly's Venture Arm and $1.5 Million from NIH
December 1, 2015
By Mark Terry, BioSpace.com Breaking News Staff

San Francisco-based Symic Biomedical recently closed on a Series A round worth $25 million from Lilly Ventures, Eli Lilly and Co. ’s venture arm. Since setting up shop in 2012, Symic has raised more than $43 million.

Symic focuses on developing a library of extracellular matrix (ECM)-specific drugs that mimic a biochemical known as proteoglycans, which appear to offer a protective effect to ECM. To controlled injuries, such as incisions and angioplasty, Symic’s compounds can be applied locally, and help in healing, reducing inflammation and scarring.

On Nov. 17, Symic announced that it had selected SB-916 as the company’s first candidate for osteoarthritis. The compound in preclinical studies was helpful in reducing pain and cartilage degradation.

“Today, there are no treatments available for the underlying structural progression of osteoarthritis, a disease that affects approximately 30 million Americans,” said Ken Horne, Symic’s chief executive officer in a statement. “Current options for managing the symptoms of osteoarthritis are only palliative, whereas we believe that SB-061 has the potential to both address pain and to modify the disease itself. Symic expects to enter the clinic with SB-061 in the second quarter of 2016.” The company expects to enroll 90 patients in the study.

Symic’s first drug, SB-030, is designed to heal vascular damage caused during angioplasty or a stent procedure. These procedures typically damage the ECM layer, which would generally repair itself if the body’s repair mechanisms would allow it. “We’re protecting or covering the affected area,” Horne told the San Francisco Business Times, “and telling the body don’t respond to it.”

It is currently enrolling fewer than 70 patients in a Phase I/II safety and efficacy study.

Previous investors include Denmark’s Den Danske Forskningsfond, Mitsui Global Investment (Japan), Hong Kong’s Ally Bridge Group, InCube Ventures, Purdue Foundry Investment, Mission Bay Capital, QB3 Partners, and individual investors.

In late August, Symic was awarded a $1.5 million Phase II SBIR grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to continue developing its compound to reduce arteriovenous fistula (AVF) failures. There is a significant unmet clinical need for this in end stage renal disease (ESRD) patients that are being treated with hemodialysis. The project runs for two years and is funded by the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK). This will help advance SBCV-030 into clinical development.

“In the past three decades, there have been no major advances in the field of hemodialysis vascular access, resulting in a huge unmet clinical need,” said Prabir Roy-Chaudhury, Division Director of Nephrology at the University of Arizona College of Medicine and Banner University Medical Center, in a statement. “Symic’s therapeutic has the potential to address the underlying cause of both AV fistula and AV graft stenosis, without requiring changes in the process of how these procedures are performed. If successful, Symic’s innovative and pioneering approach to prevent vascular access stenosis could not only improve the quality of life and survival of ESRD patients, but also reduce costs to the healthcare system.”

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