Tetra Discovery Partners Announces Additional Financing And Formation Of Scientific Advisory Board
GRAND RAPIDS, Mich., Oct. 16, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- Tetra Discovery Partners ("Tetra"), a drug discovery company developing a portfolio of innovative drugs for psychiatric, neurological and inflammatory diseases, today announced additional private financing. The company has received additional financing from previous seed investor Grand Angels, as well as an investment by Johnson & Johnson Development Corporation (JJDC).
Tetra additionally announced the formation of its Scientific Advisory Board, comprised of four prominent experts in the field of neuroscience and psychiatric drug development:
- Catherine D. Strader, Ph.D., Founding Partner, Synergy Partners, R&D Solutions, LLC and former Executive Vice President and Chief Scientific Officer, Schering-Plough and Vice President and Site Head, Merck Research Laboratories
- Scott A. Reines, M.D., Ph.D., former Senior Vice President, Central Nervous System, Pain and Translational Medicine, Janssen Research & Development, LLC
- James S. MacDonald, Ph.D., Founding Partner, Synergy Partners, R&D Solutions, LLC and former Executive Vice President, Preclinical Development, Schering Plough Research Institute
- Jeffrey S. Nye, M.D., Ph.D., Vice President Neuroscience Innovation and Scientific Partnership Strategy, Janssen Research and Development, LLC, Johnson & Johnson Innovation, former Chief Medical Officer of Research and Early Development at Janssen
"These new funds will support additional work aimed at the filing of our first Investigational New Drug (IND) application for our cognition drug candidate in 2015," said Mark Gurney, Ph.D., Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Tetra. "Thanks to the strong, continued backing of Grand Angels, our grant support through the NIH Blueprint Neurotherapeutics Network (BPN), the National Institute of Aging, and the National Institute of Mental Health, and now this early strategic investment by JJDC and other investors, we expect to initiate human clinical trials for our first product in either Alzheimer's disease or schizophrenia next year."
"Tetra Discovery Partners reflects the sort of innovative, high quality research being conducted in Michigan that our firm was created to support," said Jody Vanderwel, President, Grand Angels. "Our belief in the strong potential of Tetra's science, and the outstanding progress that the company has made in its lead program focused on the treatment of cognitive deficits and serious neurological and psychiatric diseases is now further supported by this new co-investment from JJDC."
"Tetra welcomes the investment from JJDC and Johnson & Johnson Innovation, which reflects their stated aim of accelerating early stage innovation," commented Dr. Gurney.
Commenting on the Tetra Scientific Advisory Board appointments overall, Dr. Gurney said, "Each of these individuals is an industry leader whose many years of expertise in the field of neuroscience drug development will be invaluable to our company as Tetra advances its subtype-selective PDE4 allosteric modulators for neurological, psychiatric, and inflammatory diseases into clinical development and eventual commercialization."
About Tetra Discovery Partners
Tetra Discovery Partners (http://www.tetradiscovery.com) uses structureguided drug design to discover mechanistically novel, allosteric inhibitors of phosphodiesterase 4 (PDE4). The company's research focuses on developing new treatments for cognitive impairment in schizophrenia, depression, Alzheimer's disease, Huntington's disease and traumatic brain injury (TBI). The company is a recipient of a National Institutes of Health (NIH) Blueprint Neurotherapeutics Network cooperative research agreement, a $50 million program across 15 NIH Institutes and Centers. The Blueprint program supports drug discovery research collaborations with early stage biotechnology companies and academics to develop effective therapeutics for nervous system disorders. The company also receives major funding through the National Institute of Aging, and the National Institute of Mental Health Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) program. Tetra Discovery Partners is headquartered in Grand Rapids, Michigan and maintains a business office in the Cambridge Innovation Center in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
Contact:
Erick Nelson, Ph.D.
VP, Business Development
Tetra Discovery Partners (Cambridge, MA)
(919) 332-9080
info@tetradiscovery.com
For Media
Joan Kureczka
Kureczka/Martin Associates
Joan@kureczka-martin.com
(415) 821-2413
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SOURCE Tetra Discovery Partners LLC