October 21, 2014
By Riley McDermid, BioSpace.com Breaking News Staff
Scrappy biotech Viamet Pharmaceuticals Holdings said today that it has closed a $60 million Series D funding round, with financing provided primarily by Brandon Point Industries Limited working in tandem with Woodford Investment Management.
As part of the deal, Robert Ingram, partner at Hatteras Venture Partners and former CEO of GlaxoWellcome, and Kelly Martin, co-founder of Brandon Point and former CEO of Elan Corporation, will join Viamet’s board of directors. Adrian Howd, partner at Brandon Point, will join the board within six months of closing.
The two firms now join Viamet’s current investor syndicate, which includes Novartis Venture Fund, Lilly Ventures, Hatteras Venture Partners, Intersouth Partners, Lurie Holdings and Astellas Venture Management.
North Carolina-based Viamet said the new financing will be rolled into its pipeline of experimental antifungal compounds and further research into its Metallophile platform.
“We are delighted with the commitment from both Brandon Point and Woodford Investment Management to Viamet,” said Robert Schotzinger, president and CEO of Viamet, in a statement. “Their collective expertise will be invaluable as we advance our broad portfolio of antifungal compounds, including particularly VT-1161, for which we will initiate Phase 2b trials in important dermatology and women’s health indications during the fourth quarter of this year, and VT-1129, for which we expect to initiate clinical development for cryptococcal meningitis in mid-2015.”
Viamet also announced that it will be spinning out its prostate cancer program, named Innocrin Pharmaceuticals, to be spearheaded by its existing investors. The new firm will be led by William Moore, former chief scientific officer of Viamet.
Innocrin is currently studying its oral clinical-stage asset, VT-464, a novel dual lyase-selective CYP-17 inhibitor and androgen receptor antagonist, in multiple Phase 2 castration-resistant prostate cancer studies.
Viamet said the new funding will allow it to focus on its antifungal research in an area often neglected by scientists and clinicians but highly painful for many patients. The firm’s primary candidate is a proprietary metalloenzyme medicinal chemistry platform, the Metallophile Technology. Metalloenzymes are enzymes that contain a metal, such as iron, zinc or copper, which is linked to the enzyme’s protein component.
“Viamet is engaged in an area of important unmet medical need – the discovery of novel agents to treat fungal infections, which are an increasingly problematic concern to the medical community, and include a broad range of indications,” said Robert Ingram, who will assume the role of chairman upon joining the Viamet Board of Directors, in a statement.
