Biopharmaceutical Company SciFluor Life Sciences Raises $30M

SciFluor_colorSciFluor Life Sciences, a Cambridge, Mass.-based clinical stage biopharmaceutical company that creates therapeutics for patients suffering from a variety of diseases, raised $30m in funding.

Backers included Invesco Asset Management, Woodford Investment Management and Allied Minds* (LSE: ALM), SciFluor’s parent company.

The company intends to use the funds to accelerate its two lead compounds — one a topical treatment for retinal diseases and the second a treatment for neurological diseases — while expanding its drug discovery and commercialization pipeline.

SciFluor Life Sciences is a drug discovery company that applies expertise in fluorine chemistry to create a broad portfolio of differentiated therapeutics to treat various diseases including retinal disease, CNS disorders, pain, pulmonary and inflammatory disease. The company recently announced the issuance of two U.S. patents for its lead compounds to treat retinal diseases and epilepsy. Its two recent patents included one for SF0166, a small molecule integrin antagonist designed to topically treat retinal disease, including Age-related Macular Degeneration (AMD) and Diabetic Macular Edema (DME), via eye drop administration to the surface of the eye. SciFluor also received a patent for SF0034, a selective neuronal potassium channel activator intended to be a significantly improved drug relative to the first-in-class KCNQ2/3 activator drug, ezogabine (POTIGA®).

In addition to the funding, the company also named William Koster, PhD, a seasoned executive in drug discovery research and early clinical development, as Chairman of the Board. Koster previously served as President and Chief Executive Officer of Neurogen Corp., a NASDAQ-listed biotechnology company engaged in neuroscience R&D and spent 30 years with Bristol-Myers Squibb Co. in various roles that included Senior Vice President overseeing worldwide drug discovery research and early clinical development through Phase 2a.

FinSMEs

22/04/2015

*Operating since 2006, Allied Minds is a Boston-based science and technology development and commercialization company that forms, funds, manages and builds products and businesses based on innovative technologies developed at leading U.S. universities and federal research institutions.

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