enGene Inc., a Montreal, Quebec, Canada-based pre-clinical stage biopharmaceutical company developing a platform technology for the delivery of nucleotides (DNA or RNA) to the gut, has held an initial closing of a $13.25m financing.
The round was led by Lumira Capital (via its Merck Lumira Biosciences Fund).
The company intends to use the funds to advance the development of its technology to achieve milestones, including:
initiation and complete a first-in-man clinical trial in subjects with ulcerative colitis;
formulation of its gut-optimized gene delivery system for oral administration; and
expansion of the platform to target other autoimmune and metabolic disorders.
Led by Dr. Anthony Cheung, CEO, enGene has developed a technology platform that enables the delivery of a wide variety of nucleotide-based therapeutics to the gastrointestinal epithelium to address several prevalent autoimmune and metabolic diseases. It has demonstrated efficacy as a mucosal immunotherapy in several animal models for autoimmune diseases including, inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) and Type 1 diabetes.
The company’s initial focus is to target IBD through concentrated delivery of interleukin-10 to the colon.
FinSMEs
02/08/2013