PHARNEXT Raises Eur 4.8 Million Series A Funding
This round of fundraising will enable Pharnext to consider launching the first-in-man clinical trials of its Pleodrug™ in the treatment of Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease before the end of 2010. Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease is a chronic, severe, invalidating neuromuscular disease which affects 3 million people worldwide and for which there is no cure at present. The fundraising will also help initiate and/or continue in vitro and in vivo research programmes on the use of Pleodrugs™ in other serious pathologies: Alzheimer's disease, chemotherapy-induced peripheral neuropathy, polycystic kidney disease, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, hyperlipidaemia and diabetes.
Pharnext has particularly solid financial foundations:
- a €2.5-million round of seed fundraising with Truffle Capital (December 2007).
- two agreements with the pharmaceutical group Ipsen, potentially worth up to €94 million in upfront and milestone payments (June 2009).
- an initial grant for work on Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease from Oséo, the French state innovation agency (2007).
- a grant from the French Muscular Dystrophy Association (AFM, 2009).
Pharnext has designed a novel, proprietary platform (Pleotherapy™) based on network pharmacology. The company's discovery engine identifies rational drug combinations (Pleodrugs™) made up of individual Pleocompounds™. This innovative approach could provide a solution to the ongoing and worrying decline in pharmaceutical pipeline productivity.
About Pharnext
Pharnext is a biopharmaceutical company focused on discovering, developing and licensing new pharmaceutical treatments based on intelligent Pleocompounds™ that form the basis of Pleodrugs™.
Contact:
PHARNEXT Professor Daniel Cohen, +33 1 55 42 62 00 / 03 daniel.cohen@pharnext.com or ALIZE RP Caroline Carmagnol, +33 6 64 18 99 59 caroline@alizerp.com