Gelesis, a Boston, MA-based clinical stage biotechnology company focused on the development of products to induce weight loss and improve glycemic control, closed a $22m equity financing.
The transaction included the conversion of approximately $4m of outstanding convertible promissory notes.
The company intends to use the proceeds for the continued clinical development of its lead product, Gelesis100, as well as advancing its pipeline product, Gelesis 200, into the clinic.
Led by Yishai Zohar, Founder and Chief Executive Officer, Gelesis focuses on the development of novel therapies to induce weight loss and improve glycemic control in overweight and obese patients, including those with prediabetes and diabetes.
Gelesis100 is an orally administered capsule containing small hydrogel particles designed to employ multiple mechanisms of action along the gastrointestinal (GI) tract to induce weight loss and improve glycemic control.
In the first quarter of 2015, the company added three leading experts in the treatment of obesity and its related comorbidities to its Scientific Advisory Board (SAB):
– Louis J. Aronne, MD, FACP, the Sanford I. Weill Professor of Metabolic Research at Weill-Cornell Medical College,
– Ken Fujioka, MD, Director of the Nutrition and Metabolic Research Center and the Center for Weight Management at the Scripps Clinic, and
– Angelo Tremblay, PhD, Professor in the Department of Social and Preventive Medicine at Laval University in Quebec City.
It also appointed two new directors, Meghan Fitzgerald and Robert Forrester, to its Board.
FinSMEs
26/03/2015