AptaTargets, a Madrid, Spain-based biopharmaceutical company, raised €2.7m in funding.
Backers included Caixa Capital Risc and Inveready.
The company intends to use the funds to complete the preclinical phase and move into phase I and II clinical trials on its first drug candidate (ApTOLL) to treat acute ischemic stroke.
Led by David Segarra, co-founder and CEO, and Mª Eugenia Zarabozo, CLO and CFO, AptaTargets specializes in aptamers, DNA or RNA molecules that can recognize and bond with specific therapeutic targets and are an alternative to antibodies. The first product being developed with these molecules is ApTOLL, an immunomodulatory molecule that could help reduce cerebral inflammation caused by stroke or myocardial infarction), autoimmune diseases and cancer.
In the long term, the company’s scientific team plans to apply it to treatments for multiple sclerosis, sepsis, insulin resistance, retinitis, atherosclerosis and myocardial infarction, among other conditions.
AptaTargets is collaborating on this project with the Neurovascular Research Unit of the Complutense University of Madrid Faculty of Medicine and is led by professors Ignacio Lizasoain and Mª Ángeles Moro, whose research laboratory is an international benchmark in neurovascular disease, and with the Aptamers Group at the Ramón y Cajal Institute for Health Research (IRYCIS) led by Dr Víctor M. González, world renowned in aptamer technology.
FinSMEs
17/05/2017