Following this financing round, Ms. Ruti Alon, General Partner of Pitango Venture Capital and Dr. Hadar Ron, Managing Partner of Israel Healthcare Ventures will join the company's Board of Directors.
"I am very pleased by the level of interest that we received from both new and existing investors in this round," said Dr. Alexander Kozak, D-Pharm's Founder, Chief Executive Officer and President. Ms. Alon and Dr. Ron will be a great addition to our Board of Directors. Most importantly, these resources will enable us to fund the further development of our main product, DP-b99 for acute stroke currently in Phase 2 clinical trials, as well as to complete pre-clinical development of our lead candidate for Alzheimer's disease."
Ruben Krupik, CEO of Clal Biotechnology Industries: "D-Pharm is one of Israel's most promising companies. This successful round is further proof of the quality of D-Pharm's technology and represents recognition of its huge potential. Together with the new investors, we will work to build the pipeline and increase the company's value."
Dr. Hadar Ron said: "We have been following D-Pharm for more than 5 years and feel that this is the right time for us to step in. This is the first investment of our IHCV II fund, and we believe that D-Pharm - with its advanced products that aim at unmet clinical needs, solid platform technologies which are based on a state of the art science, and its very experienced and talented team - is a great opportunity for our fund. IHCV II is planning several more investments in Israeli biotechnology companies in the coming future."
Ruti Alon stated: "We found D-Pharm's unique platform technologies both exciting and promising, specifically its lead product, DP-b99, for the treatment of stroke. The stroke market is very large and there is a significant unmet need for safe and effective therapeutics."
About D-Pharm: D-Pharm (www.dpharm.com) is a biopharmaceutical company pioneering the development of lipid-like therapeutics and has generated a rich product pipeline from its drug targeting and discovery technologies, Regulated Activation of Prodrugs (D-RAP(TM)) and Membrane Active Chelators (MAC). These technologies control drug activity via built-in 'switch-on/switch-off' mechanisms. Currently, the company's business strategy is to continue the development of DP-b99 through to completion of Phase II. Another major product is DP-VPA, a novel drug for treatment for migraine, bipolar disorder and epilepsy. DP-VPA is currently in an advanced stage of a clinical Phase II program. In preclinical development is DP-109, an oral, disease-modifying therapy for Alzheimer's disease. DP-109 has demonstrated impressive efficacy in transgenic mouse models of Alzheimer's disease. At an earlier developmental stage is DP-388 for pancreatic cancer. D-Pharm is currently seeking development partners for DP-VPA and its other pipeline products.
About Clal Biotechnology Industries: Clal Biotechnology Industries (www.cbi.co.il) is Israel's largest investment group in biotechnology. CBI is controlled by Clal Industries (TASE: CII) and Teva Pharmaceutical Industries (Nasdaq: Teva - News).
About Israel Healthcare Ventures: (IHCV) provides venture capital investment to Israeli companies in the fields of medical devices, biotechnology, pharmaceuticals, and medical-related IT. Headquartered in Tel Aviv, IHCV was founded in March 2001 by prominent US and UK investors from the pharmaceutical and financial services worlds.
About Pitango Ventures: Pitango Venture Capital (www.pitango.com) is Israel's largest venture capital firm and a lead investor in seed, early, and expansion stage companies. Pitango has helped grow over 100 companies, managing funds in excess of $1 billion in committed capital.
Contact: Tami Horovitz Business Development D-Pharm Ltd Tel: +972-08-938-5100 Fax: +972-08-930-0795 E-mail: thorovitz@dpharm.com
Source: D-Pharm Ltd
