Date: 2013-12-11
Type of information: Fundraising
Company: Ario Pharma (UK)
Investors: New Science Ventures, Forbion Capital Partners and Seroba Kernel Life Sciences.
Amount: £1.9 million (€ 2.27 million)
Funding type: fundraising
Planned used: The funding will be used to execute two separate Phase 2 trials for Ario Pharma’s lead product, XEN-D0501, in chronic idiopathic cough and cough associated with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). Ario Pharma expects to commence the Phase 2 trials in Q1 2014. The Phase 2 trials will be randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled cross-over studies and will use validated ambulatory cough monitoring technology developed by Dr. Jacky Smith from the University Hospital of South Manchester.
Others: * On December 11, 2013, Ario Pharma has announced that it has successfully raised £1.9 million (€ 2.27 million) from an international syndicate of New Science Ventures, Forbion Capital Partners and Seroba Kernel Life Sciences. This new UK biopharmaceutical company is a spin out from Xention Pharma Ltd, a specialist ion channel R&D company. Ario Pharma is based in Cambridge, UK and has been founded to develop innovative new approaches to treat respiratory diseases. Its lead product, XEN-D0501, is a potential best in class, orally bioavailable inhibitor of TRPV1. There is substantial published clinical evidence for the role of TRPV1 in the pathogenesis of cough, which suggests that TRPV1 antagonists could inhibit chronic cough in both idiopathic cough and COPD cough. In preclinical studies, XEN-D0501 suppressed ex vivo vagal nerve firing in response to tussive agents and completely abolished cough counts in animal models. XEN-D0501 has successfully completed multiple Phase 1 studies and has been shown to be safe and well tolerated.
The Company’s Scientific Advisory Board is comprised of world-renowned UK experts in respiratory disease including Professor Maria Belvisi and Dr Mark Birrell from the National Heart and Lung Institute, Imperial College London and Professor Dave Singh and Dr Jacky Smith from the University of Manchester and University Hospital of South Manchester.
Therapeutic area: Respiratory diseases - Inflammatory diseases
