PHILADELPHIA, Jan. 5 /PRNewswire/ -- PolyMedix, Inc. announced today that it has closed a $6 million Series B equity financing, raising $4 million in a second closing.
These funds will be used to complete the preclinical development of the Company's lead antibiotic compound, for which an IND and initiation of human clinical trials are planned for later this year. In addition, PolyMedix plans to seek a Series C financing this year, the proceeds of which will be used to fund clinical development of its antibiotic drug compounds.
PolyMedix Background
PolyMedix develops biomimetics -- novel non-peptide small molecule drugs which mimic the activity of proteins, but will be inexpensive to make and formulate into drugs. To design these compounds PolyMedix uses a proprietary computational drug design technology developed at and licensed from the University of Pennsylvania. These computational methodologies are based on the inventions of Drs. William DeGrado, Michael Klein, and Gregory Tew.
The first products PolyMedix has developed with the computational technology are novel small molecule antibiotic drug candidates. To develop these compounds, PolyMedix imitated nature and mimicked the activity of host defense proteins, one of the oldest and most effective antimicrobial defense systems in virtually all living creatures. Unlike conventional antibiotic drugs, PolyMedix's antimicrobial compounds work by a novel mechanism which directly lyses bacterial cell membranes. They thus have the potential to be rapid acting broad-spectrum antibiotic drugs for which bacterial resistance is very unlikely to occur. PolyMedix plans to file an IND and start human clinical trials with its first antibiotic drug later this year.
PolyMedix is also developing polymer derivatives of these antibiotic compounds. These polymers may be used as additives to paints, plastics, and textiles to create self-sterilizing antimicrobial products and surfaces.
This press release contains forward-looking statements that involve risks and that could cause the Company's actual results and experience to differ materially from anticipated results and expectations expressed in these forward-looking statements. Among other things, there can be no assurance that the Company's compounds will successfully complete clinical testing or be granted regulatory approval to be sold and marketed in the United States or elsewhere.
PolyMedix, Inc.CONTACT: Dawn Eringis of PolyMedix, Inc., +1-610-613-0621, orderingis@polymedix.com; or Brad Miles (Media), BMC Communications Group,+1-212-477-9007, ext. 17, for PolyMedix, Inc.
