PITTSBURGH, Sept. 8, 2015 /PRNewswire/ -- Cognition Therapeutics Inc. (CogRx), a privately held pharmaceutical company focused on discovering and developing disease-modifying therapies for Alzheimer’s and related neurodegenerative diseases, announced today that it has completed a Series B preferred stock financing totaling $12 million. Golden Seeds led the investment syndicate, which included, Bios Memory SPV1, Cowtown Angels, Scale Investors, Dolby Family Ventures, Maine Angels, as well as additional life sciences investors. Existing CogRx investors, including Ogden CAP, PLSG Accelerator Fund, Tech Coast Angels, ACE Fund, Ariel Southeast Angel Partners and M5Invest Partners also participated in the financing.
“This latest round of financing is indicative of the growing commitment we are seeing from investors to find new and effective treatments for Alzheimer’s disease,” said Dr. Hank Safferstein, Chief Executive Officer. “We are emboldened by the recent scientific validation of the soluble Abeta oligomer binding target and the promise that our small molecule Abeta oligomer displacement approach could significantly improve the lives of patients and their families.”
CogRx will focus on advancing its first-in-class lead Alzheimer’s program into Phase 1 clinical studies by the end of 2015. The Company’s small molecule Abeta oligomer displacement drug has the potential to rapidly improve and possibly reverse the symptoms of Alzheimer’s disease and to stop disease progression. In addition, the Company is using the funds to advance next generation compounds and unlock the potential of its platform for discovering drugs for other protein misfolding nervous system diseases.
CogRx also announced two additions to its Medical Advisory Board: Dr. Steven T. DeKosky, MD, Aerts-Cosper Professor of Alzheimer’s Research, Deputy Director, McKnight Brain Institute, and Dr. Lon S. Schneider, MD, Professor of Psychiatry, Neurology, and Gerontology, Keck School of Medicine of USC. These experts will bring their extensive experience in Alzheimer’s research to help guide the development of CogRx’s clinical trial program.
“I am honored to be a part of this rapidly unfolding and exciting story,” said Dr. Steven DeKosky. “The field has been searching for truly novel therapeutic approaches to treating and preventing Alzheimer’s disease. CogRx’s oligomer antagonist drug candidate is the first opportunity we have to test this modified amyloid hypothesis, which has been recently strengthened by the public disclosures from two large biopharmaceutical companies. I believe the CogRx drug candidate has the potential to not only improve cognitive function but to affect the course of disease through synaptic protection.”
Alzheimer’s is the sixth leading cause of death in the United States and has an economic burden of $214 billion annually. By 2050 the number of people 65 and older with Alzheimer’s is expected to nearly triple to a projected 13.8 million barring the development of medical breakthroughs to prevent slow or stop the disease.1 These facts and figures, combined with the lack of any approved drugs that can slow or halt disease progression, make Alzheimer’s disease one of the most significant unmet medical needs of the present decade. Small molecule drugs that can significantly block and disrupt the binding and pathogenic signaling of the toxic forms of Abeta protein have the potential to dramatically improve the quality of life for Alzheimer’s patients and their caregivers.
About CogRx’s Small Molecule Soluble Abeta Receptor Antagonist Program
CogRx has discovered small molecule drug candidates that it believes can efficiently displace toxic beta-amyloid oligomers bound to receptor proteins on brain cells at synapses. CogRx drug candidates have been shown to reverse the memory loss seen in genetically engineered transgenic mice expressing human Alzheimer’s genes after only one month of treatment and sustain this memory improvement long term.2
About CogRx
Cognition Therapeutics is a privately held Pittsburgh-based pharmaceutical company using disease-relevant screening and novel chemistry platform approaches to produce a pipeline of new small molecule drug candidates for protein misfolding diseases of the nervous system. CogRx’s leading clinical candidate-stage program is a highly brain-penetrant, orally bioavailable small molecule receptor antagonist that blocks memory deficits in Alzheimer’s disease models.
Forward-Looking Statements
This press release contains “forward-looking statements” concerning the development and commercialization of CogRx’s products, the potential benefits and attributes of such products, and CogRx’s expectations regarding its prospects. Forward-looking statements are subject to risks, assumptions and uncertainties that could cause actual future events or results to differ materially from such statements. These statements are made as of the date of this press release. Actual results may vary. CogRx undertakes no obligation to update any forward-looking statements for any reason.
1. Murphy SL, Xu JO, Kochanek KD. Deaths: Final data for 2010 National Vital Statistics Reports; Vol 61, No 4. National Center for Health Statistics, Hyattsville, MD; 2013 Available at: http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/databriefs/db178.htm Accessed August 19, 2015;
2. Izzo NJ et al. PLoS One. 2014;9:e111898
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SOURCE Cognition Therapeutics Inc.
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