Terapio Corporation, an Austin, Texas-based development stage biotechnology company, announced it has secured $5m in a Series A equity financing from Santé Ventures, a life sciences venture capital firm that invests exclusively in early-stage companies developing innovative new medical technologies or healthcare delivery models.
This financing is in addition to $3.2m Terapio has previously received from the Texas Emerging Technology Fund, the National Institutes of Health, and angel investors.
The company is developing a pipeline of therapeutic applications based on the unique properties RLIP76, a transport protein that helps move large molecules across the cell membrane.
The first application of Terapio’s technology is as a radiation countermeasure, which has been demonstrated by the company in animal studies in which the protein significantly increased overall survival of mice exposed to otherwise lethal doses of radiation, even when the protein is administered orally after radiation exposure. In this case, RLIP76 helps mitigate the harmful effects of ionizing radiation and chemical toxins by providing cells with an increased ability to tolerate the oxidative stresses associated with reactive glutathione S‐conjugates. A second application is in drug delivery.
Proceeds from this financing will be used to continue preclinical development of the radiation countermeasure and drug delivery applications and to prepare an Investigational New Drug (IND) application with the FDA to begin human clinical trials.
FinSMEs
FinSMEs
30/11/2009