Zucara Therapeutics Receives Funding to Advance Lead Drug Candidate

VANCOUVER and TORONTO, Canada  - Zucara Therapeutics, a pre-clinical life sciences company advancing a novel long-term therapeutic approach to prevent hypoglycemia in patients with diabetes, has received support of up to $350,000 from the National Research Council of Canada Industrial Research Assistance Program (NRC IRAP). In addition, The Centre for Drug Research and Development (CDRD) and MaRS Innovation have contributed follow on funding to the Company's existing convertible note.

Zucara recently defined its lead drug candidate, ZT-01, and this support will enable Zucara to  conduct critical validation work and further advance ZT-01 through preclinical testing, formulation and manufacturing for human clinical trials. CDRD's Analytical Chemistry division is completing these activities while efficacy studies are underway at the laboratory of project collaborator, Dr. Michael Riddell at York University.

This year Zucara is focusing on additional testing, safety, efficacy and toxicology studies required for human testing with the aim of starting a Phase 1 clinical trial in 2019.

Michael Midmer, Chief Executive Officer for Zucara Therapeutics remarked, "The continued support from NRC IRAP has been instrumental in funding the R&D required to define our lead drug candidate and advance ZT-01 to what we hope will be an effective therapy for patients with diabetes. We also recognize and appreciate the ongoing support from our founding investors MaRS Innovation and CDRD who continue to help us make Zucara a success."