Mulhouse, France, July 30, 2009 - Rhenovia Pharma SAS, a biopharmaceutical company specialized in the development and optimization of drugs for Alzheimer's and other diseases of the brain, announces today it has raised EUR 390,000 (USD 542,000) in a first round of angel funding.
Three groups of investors have joined Rhenovia: Alsace Business Angels individually and via their fund ABA Invest SAS, two entrepreneurs from France and Switzerland and SODIV, an investment fund for the economic development of the region Alsace, which converted a loan into equities. The amount of equity financing was set taking into account Rhenovia's existing funding amounting to EUR 1.4 million and comprising the investment by the founders and team members, awards, regional and government funding and European research grants, and revenues generated by the service contracts.
"This financing round represents a major milestone in Rhenovia's company development, bringing significant progress both financially and in terms of recognition for Rhenovia," said Dr. Serge Bischoff, CEO of Rhenovia Pharma. "The backing of our new investors, together with the recently announced signature of a subcontracting deal with the US National Institutes of Health of around USD 440,000 adds about one million dollars to our finances. After our partnership contracts with Altran and Sanofi Aventis, this achievement confirms our belief that Rhenovia's highly innovative biosimulation approach in CNS is seen by the industry and academia as making a unique contribution to developing drugs for brain diseases and offering attractive prospects of growth to investors."
"Rhenovia Pharma is a world leader in the modeling of the central nervous system for therapeutic purposes," said Marc Loizeau, communications manager at Alsace Business Angels. "Among the reasons for making our fifth investment in just over a year, is the potential of Rhenovia's well-balanced management and scientific team with a presence in the US, Germany, Switzerland and France. They bring together international experts in biosimulation in CNS and substantial experience in the pharmaceutical industry."
"These funds, together with the partnership contracts in preparation provide Rhenovia with a healthy financial base and secure the existence of the company for the next two years," added Bischoff.
The additional funds will serve to pursue the development of Rhenovia's technology platforms and expand them to new therapeutic indications. They will also enable the company to diversify its service offering to the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industry and to widen its market. Rhenovia plans to increase its staffing in the next few months by hiring a neurobiologist and one or two additional computing engineers and technicians.
The company recently announced that it will share a Bioengineering Research Partnership of USD 2.3 million (EUR 1.65 million) awarded by the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS), part of the US National Institutes of Health in partnership with two laboratories of the University of Southern California, Los Angeles (USC).
Why Biosimulation for brain diseases
Biosimulation consists in the use of computational models that provide a dynamic and quantitative description of a number of biological, pathological, and pharmacokinetic processes in order to understand complex biological processes. Biosimulation is particularly appropriate for use in CNS disease research. Unmet medical needs in this field, especially for Alzheimer's disease, are mostly due to the fact that all brain pathologies are extremely complex, multifactorial and dynamic. Furthermore, brain diseases are most probably of multiple origins and involve separate physiological mechanisms, multiple pathways and neuronal/glial interactions. They might also affect dynamic features such as feedback/feed-forward regulations and cross-talk between extracellular and intracellular mechanisms. For these reasons, the conventional drug discovery approach followed by most pharmaceutical companies might not be sufficient to address the multiple facets of these diseases. In particular, the single-target, single-mechanism approach so suited for high-throughput screening may not result in optimal identification of candidate therapeutics.
About Rhenovia Pharma SAS
Rhenovia Pharma SAS is a biopharmaceutical company specialized in the development and optimization of drugs for Alzheimer's and other diseases of the brain. It has developed and implemented a unique technology in a biosimulation platform. Rhenovia believes it has developed the first platform to simulate mechanisms involved in learning and memory and in a variety of brain functions related to the balance between excitation and inhibition. More than 90 percent of drugs in this area are active in the synapse and directly or indirectly on excitation and inhibition. It is making this platform available in its RHEDDOS program, aimed at pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies wishing to extend drug life cycle, develop new drug combinations and identify new targets for therapeutic molecules.
Rhenovia was founded in 2007 to exploit technology developed at the University of Southern California for which it acquired the exclusive worldwide license. In addition to the founders, the company has built a management team that combines extensive scientific and management experience in large pharmaceutical companies. With this fundraising, the company has raised around EUR 1.4 million in investor funding as well as various government grants and loans and funding from Rhenovia's founders and team members.
More information : http://www.rhenovia.com
Three groups of investors have joined Rhenovia: Alsace Business Angels individually and via their fund ABA Invest SAS, two entrepreneurs from France and Switzerland and SODIV, an investment fund for the economic development of the region Alsace, which converted a loan into equities. The amount of equity financing was set taking into account Rhenovia's existing funding amounting to EUR 1.4 million and comprising the investment by the founders and team members, awards, regional and government funding and European research grants, and revenues generated by the service contracts.
"This financing round represents a major milestone in Rhenovia's company development, bringing significant progress both financially and in terms of recognition for Rhenovia," said Dr. Serge Bischoff, CEO of Rhenovia Pharma. "The backing of our new investors, together with the recently announced signature of a subcontracting deal with the US National Institutes of Health of around USD 440,000 adds about one million dollars to our finances. After our partnership contracts with Altran and Sanofi Aventis, this achievement confirms our belief that Rhenovia's highly innovative biosimulation approach in CNS is seen by the industry and academia as making a unique contribution to developing drugs for brain diseases and offering attractive prospects of growth to investors."
"Rhenovia Pharma is a world leader in the modeling of the central nervous system for therapeutic purposes," said Marc Loizeau, communications manager at Alsace Business Angels. "Among the reasons for making our fifth investment in just over a year, is the potential of Rhenovia's well-balanced management and scientific team with a presence in the US, Germany, Switzerland and France. They bring together international experts in biosimulation in CNS and substantial experience in the pharmaceutical industry."
"These funds, together with the partnership contracts in preparation provide Rhenovia with a healthy financial base and secure the existence of the company for the next two years," added Bischoff.
The additional funds will serve to pursue the development of Rhenovia's technology platforms and expand them to new therapeutic indications. They will also enable the company to diversify its service offering to the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industry and to widen its market. Rhenovia plans to increase its staffing in the next few months by hiring a neurobiologist and one or two additional computing engineers and technicians.
The company recently announced that it will share a Bioengineering Research Partnership of USD 2.3 million (EUR 1.65 million) awarded by the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS), part of the US National Institutes of Health in partnership with two laboratories of the University of Southern California, Los Angeles (USC).
Why Biosimulation for brain diseases
Biosimulation consists in the use of computational models that provide a dynamic and quantitative description of a number of biological, pathological, and pharmacokinetic processes in order to understand complex biological processes. Biosimulation is particularly appropriate for use in CNS disease research. Unmet medical needs in this field, especially for Alzheimer's disease, are mostly due to the fact that all brain pathologies are extremely complex, multifactorial and dynamic. Furthermore, brain diseases are most probably of multiple origins and involve separate physiological mechanisms, multiple pathways and neuronal/glial interactions. They might also affect dynamic features such as feedback/feed-forward regulations and cross-talk between extracellular and intracellular mechanisms. For these reasons, the conventional drug discovery approach followed by most pharmaceutical companies might not be sufficient to address the multiple facets of these diseases. In particular, the single-target, single-mechanism approach so suited for high-throughput screening may not result in optimal identification of candidate therapeutics.
About Rhenovia Pharma SAS
Rhenovia Pharma SAS is a biopharmaceutical company specialized in the development and optimization of drugs for Alzheimer's and other diseases of the brain. It has developed and implemented a unique technology in a biosimulation platform. Rhenovia believes it has developed the first platform to simulate mechanisms involved in learning and memory and in a variety of brain functions related to the balance between excitation and inhibition. More than 90 percent of drugs in this area are active in the synapse and directly or indirectly on excitation and inhibition. It is making this platform available in its RHEDDOS program, aimed at pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies wishing to extend drug life cycle, develop new drug combinations and identify new targets for therapeutic molecules.
Rhenovia was founded in 2007 to exploit technology developed at the University of Southern California for which it acquired the exclusive worldwide license. In addition to the founders, the company has built a management team that combines extensive scientific and management experience in large pharmaceutical companies. With this fundraising, the company has raised around EUR 1.4 million in investor funding as well as various government grants and loans and funding from Rhenovia's founders and team members.
More information : http://www.rhenovia.com
