Tackling Neurodegenerative Space, Neuraltus Raises $17M
(BioWorld Today Via Acquire Media NewsEdge)
By Jennifer Boggs Assistant Managing Editor
[March 26, 2009]
Neuraltus Pharmaceuticals Inc., which has been working quietly since its founding in 2005 to advance an early-stage platform of small-molecule drugs for neurodegenerative diseases, is ready to move to the next stage after securing its first major venture capital funding.
The Menlo Park, Calif.-based firm pulled in $17 million in a Series A financing, with co-investments from San Francisco-based Latterell Venture Partners, San Bruno, Calif.-based VantagePoint Venture Partners and Chicago-based Adams Street Partners. That funding is expected to support Phase I and Phase II studies in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), Parkinson's disease and Gaucher's disease, said Ari Azhir, CEO and co-founder, adding that the money should enable the company to complete Phase II in all three programs.
Despite the anticipated decline of venture capital to the biotech space, Neuraltus was able to attract sufficient VC funding for its first round, likely due in part to the fact that it's working in the hot neurodegenerative field, an area that represents "an unmet medical need," Azhir said.
Plus, the company's "science was pretty compelling," she added.
Neuraltus was formed based on work by co-founders Michael McGrath, professor of laboratory medicine at the University of California, San Francisco, and Edgar Engleman, professor of medicine and pathology at Stanford University School of Medicine. Its lead program in ALS stems from work done by McGrath on "a new target and a new mechanism of action," that aims to regulate macrophages to treat the disease, Azhir told BioWorld Today.
ALS, a progressive disease in which motor neurons start degenerating and lead to the brain's inability to control muscle movement, affects about 30,000 people in the U.S. and has limited treatment options. Sanofi-Aventis Group's Rilutek (riluzole), a glutamate inhibitor, is one of the few drugs approved for ALS, but it offers only a modest survival benefit.
Other drugs in development include AL-02, a creatine-based drug from Avicena Group, of Palo Alto, Calif., which is in Phase III development, and arimoclomol, from Los Angeles-based CytRx Corp., which recently was cleared to start a Phase II/III trial in a subset of ALS patients as the firm finished up toxicology studies needed to remove the clinical hold on a separate midstage study in a broader ALS population.
Sangamo Biosciences Inc., of Richmond, Calif., is in Phase II with SB-509, an injectable formulation of a plasmid encoding a zinc finger DNA-binding protein transcription factor designed to up-regulate the expression of the gene encoding vascular endothelial growth factor. And Aeolus Pharmaceuticals Inc., of Laguna Niguel, Calif., completed a Phase I trial last year with antioxidant drug AEOL-10150, while Rockville, Md.-based Neuralstem Inc. recently filed an investigational new drug application to start testing in ALS patients with its Human Neural Stem Cell technology.
Privately held Neuraltus is staying quiet on the exact timeline for upcoming studies in ALS. But with that program ongoing, along with two others aimed at treating dyskinesia in Parkinson's disease and Gaucher's disease, "we have a lot on our plate right now," Azhir said.
The company currently has five employees but it anticipates growing that number to 10 over the next year.
Prior to the Series A, Neuraltus supported its research with about $3.5 million in seed funding. The firm also has relied on collaborations with the ALS Society and the Parkinson's Institute, as well as the Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto, which works with the company in Gaucher's disease, Azhir said.
The company has "the combination of exciting science, wonderful IP and fantastic collaborations," she added. "It takes a lot to make a good company, and I think we already have the ingredients." |
