Akebia Therapeutics, Inc., a Cincinnati, OH-based pharmaceutical discovery and development company focused on anemia and vascular disorders, has completed the $5m second tranche of its $17m Series A financing round.
Investors in this tranche include Novartis Bioventures Ltd, Venture Investors, LLC, Triathlon Medical Ventures, Kearny Venture Partners, Athenian Venture Partners and Sigvion Capital.
In conjunction with the funding, the company also announced that it has successfully completed a phase 1b study for AKB-6548 in healthy volunteers. AKB-6548 is an orally bioavailable hypoxia-inducible factor-prolyl hydroxylase (HIF-PH) inhibitor designed to increase the natural production of erythropoietin (EPO) in anemic patients.
The new capital will enable the company to start a phase 2a study shortly.
In early 2011, Akebia will begin phase 1 clinical trials for its innovative HPTPbeta inhibitor/Angiopoietin 2 modulator, AKB-9778, for the treatment of vascular leak syndrome and critical limb ischemia.
FinSMEs
16/06/2010