CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va., June 18 /PRNewswire/ -- Adenosine Therapeutics, LLC (ATL), announced today that the Novartis Option Fund is leading the Company's $14 million series "C" financing. In a separate agreement, Novartis has acquired an option to ATL's A2B receptor antagonist program. ATL will continue to develop the program, which is targeted at developing drugs for the oral treatment of Type II diabetes, asthma and other disorders.
"This relationship will accelerate the clinical development of our family of A2B antagonists that have the potential to offer new oral treatment options for patients suffering from Type II diabetes and asthma," said Robert S. Capon, Chief Executive Officer and co-founder of Adenosine Therapeutics. "Collaborating with Novartis allows ATL to complement its internal research capabilities with those of this well-respected leader in the pharmaceutical industry and provides robust financing to take the program forward into clinical development."
In addition to the drug candidates developed by ATL, Novartis obtained an exclusive option to U.S. Patent 6,060,481, which covers the use of A2B receptor antagonists for the treatment of diabetes and related diseases. This patent was conceived by Kathryn LaNoue, Ph.D. of Penn State University, and Joel Linden, Ph.D. of the University of Virginia, and was exclusively licensed to ATL. Dr. LaNoue and Dr. Linden jointly discovered that A2B receptor antagonists lower blood glucose in insulin resistant animals. Research by Dr. Linden, a co-founder of Adenosine Therapeutics, and others also suggests that A2B receptor antagonists may be effective for the treatment of asthma and other disorders.
About Adenosine Therapeutics
Adenosine Therapeutics is a world leader in the development of novel pharmaceutical products that target adenosine receptor subtypes. The company's most advanced product is Apadenoson, a highly selective A2A agonist, which is in Phase III clinical development for use as a stress agent during cardiac imaging. The Company is also developing drugs for the treatment of asthma, diabetes, Parkinson's disease, cancer, ophthalmic disease and inflammatory indications such as sepsis, heart attack, ischemia-reperfusion injury, sickle cell crisis, vascular injury, arthritis, spinal cord injury, COPD, and inflammatory bowel disease. For more information on Adenosine Therapeutics, please visit our web site at www.adenrx.com.
About Novartis Option Fund
The Novartis Option Fund is a $200 million fund which is part of the Novartis Corporate Venture Funds. Established in 1996, the Novartis Venture Funds currently manages over $550 million in committed capital and is invested in more than 50 private companies. The objective of the Novartis Option Fund is to seed innovative companies through initial and follow-on investment. The initial investment is coupled with an option to a specific therapeutic program providing early validation for the start-up company's technology/programs by large Pharma. The Novartis Venture Funds team of nine investment professionals located in Basel, Switzerland and Cambridge, MA brings together extensive expertise in the biotech and pharmaceutical industry and venture capital. For more information, visit www.venturefund.novartis.com
Adenosine Therapeutics, LLCCONTACT: Robert Capon of Adenosine Therapeutics, LLC, +1-434-220-9400 ext.201
