Vidac Pharma Completes $9 Million Series A Financing
ADVANCES PHASE 2 STUDIES WITH VDA-1102 IN ACTINIC KERATOSIS
JERUSALEM--(BUSINESS WIRE)--
Vidac Pharma, a privately-held clinical stage pharmaceutical company developing novel small molecule therapeutics for the treatment of cancer and oncodermatology disease, announced today that it has closed a $9 million a Series A financing round. The financing was led by a new investor, Israel Biotech Fund. Existing investors, including Mivtach Shamir Holdings, also participated in the financing. Dr. Robert Spiegel and Mr. Ed Saltzman, members of Israel Biotech Fund’s Venture Advisory team, will join Vidac’s board of directors. Robert J. Spiegel, MD is former chief medical officer and senior vice president of the Schering-Plough Research Institute. Ed Saltzman is president and founder of Defined Health, a leading business development strategy consulting firm.
Vidac Pharma plans to use the proceeds to advance the development of its lead product, VDA-1102 ointment, which is in Phase 2 clinical trial in patients with actinic keratosis. Actinic keratosis (AK) is one of the most common dermatologic conditions worldwide. It effects an estimated 58 million people in the United States alone with estimated treatment costs in 2004 of $1.2 billion.
“This financing will allow us to advance the clinical development of our lead candidate VDA-1102 as well as progress our pipeline of novel therapeutics into clinical development,” said Oren M. Becker, Ph.D., president and chief executive officer of Vidac Pharma. “We are thrilled by the strong support from our existing investors, and by the addition of Israel Biotech Fund and its new board members who are highly experienced in guiding drugs through clinical development and regulatory approval to commercial success.”
Vidac pharma is dedicated to discovering and developing first-in-class medicines to help people suffering from a range of oncologic and oncodermatologic diseases. Vidac’s breakthrough technology targets the cancer-specific VDAC/HK2 system without affecting the surrounding healthy tissue. It thus holds the promise of delivering novel drugs that are both efficacious and well tolerated by patients.
“The new financing will allow Vidac Pharma to realize its vision of turning breakthrough science in the field of mitochondria and cancer metabolism into first-in-class therapies that help millions of patients suffering from cancer and related diseases.” Said Prof. Max Herzberg, Vidac’s founder and chairman of the board, who is the inventor of VDA-1102.
“We invested in Vidac because we were impressed by the pre-clinical results of the lead compound and management’s ability to build an important company in the field of oncology and oncodermatology,” said David Sidransky, M.D., co-founder & general partner at Israel Biotech Fund. “This investment is in line with our strategy of investing in leading drug discovery and development companies in Israel.”
About Vidac Pharma
Vidac Pharma is a clinical stage innovative biopharmaceutical company dedicated to discovering and developing first-in-class medicines to help people suffering from a range of oncologic and oncodermatologic diseases. Vidac’s breakthrough technology targets the VDAC/HK2 system that is unique to malignant cells. Modulating this target leads to selective apoptosis of cancer cells without affecting the surrounding healthy tissue, and thus holds the promise of delivering novel drugs that are both efficacious and well tolerated by patients. Vidac’s lead product is, VDA-1102, a selective VDAC/HK2 modulator formulated as a topical ointment. This drug successfully completed Phase 1 clinical, and is now in a Phase 2 clinical study in patients suffering from actinic keratosis. For more information regarding Vidac Pharma, please visit www.vidacpharma.com.
About Israel Biotech Fund
Israel Biotech Fund invests in Israeli and Israeli related biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies. The Fund’s goal is to generate strong returns and long term capital appreciation by funding and building sustainable, high value Israel-based biotech companies. For more information regarding Israel Biotech Fund, please visit www.IsraelBiotechFund.com.
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