DiscGenics, Inc., a Salt Lake City, UT-based clinical stage biopharmaceutical company developing regenerative cell-based therapies that alleviate pain and restore function in patients with degenerative diseases of the spine, raised $50m in Series C funding.
The round was led by Ci:z Investment LLP with participation from new investors, Eagle Fund SP1 LLP, Medical Incubator Japan (MIJ), and CareNet of Japan. Major follow-on investments from Mitsubishi UFJ Capital Co. Ltd, the company’s Board of Directors, and existing long-term investors contributed to the oversubscription of the round. This latest round of funding brings investment in the company to just over $71m to-date.
The company will use the new capital to support ongoing clinical trials of its injectable Discogenic Cell Therapy (IDCT) for lumbar degenerative disc disease (DDD), to fund future commercialization activities in the U.S. and Japan, and for the scale up and scale out of its allogeneic cell manufacturing facility in Salt Lake City, UT.
Led by Flagg Flanagan, Chief Executive Officer and Chairman of the Board of Directors, DiscGenics is a clinical stage biopharmaceutical company focused on developing regenerative cell-based therapies that alleviate pain and restore function in patients with degenerative diseases of the spine. Its first product candidate, IDCT, is a homologous, allogeneic, injectable cell therapy that utilizes biomedically engineered progenitor cells derived from intervertebral disc tissue, known as Discogenic Cells, to offer a non-surgical, potentially regenerative solution for the treatment of patients with mild to moderate degenerative disc disease.
Concurrent with this investment, the company has added two new members to its Board of Directors. They are:
- Colin Lee Novick, a cofounder and managing director of one of Japan’s leading regenerative medicine consulting firms, CJ PARTNERS. He was selected by Dr. Yoshinori Shirono, founder of Ci:z Investment LLP, the lead Series C investor, to represent his interests on the DiscGenics Board.
- Najeeb Thomas, M.D., an internationally recognized neurosurgeon who practices at Southern Brain and Spine in New Orleans, Louisiana, where he focuses on treatment of degenerative diseases of the spine.
FinSMEs
27/08/2020