AmacaThera Inc., a Toronto, Canada-based focused on the commercialization of a hydrogel platform for sustained drug release, closed US$3.6M seed financing round.
A first close of the round was led by Sprout BioVentures/ Viva Biotech with participation from Grey Sky Venture Partners, and the round was recently completed with an investment by Toronto-based Lumira Ventures. In conjunction with the funding, Peter van der Velden, Managing General Partner at Lumira Ventures, joined the company’s board of directors.
Led by Dr. Molly Shoichet, Ph.D., Co-Founder and Chief Scientific Officer, and Mike Cooke, AmacaThera’s Co-Founder and CEO, AmacaThera uses proprietary technology to develop injectable and biocompatible hydrogels that can enhance the delivery, targeting and release of a diverse range of therapeutic agents. Its first product, AMT-143, is being developed to improve post-operative pain control thereby reducing or eliminating opioid use following surgery.
The company was nurtured in Dr. Shoichet’s laboratory with assistance from numerous accelerators, including the Creative Destruction Lab at the Rotman School of Management, University of Toronto Early Stage Technology, the Ontario Biosciences Innovation Organization (OBIO), TIAP (formerly MaRS Innovation), and the U of T Innovations & Partnership Office. AmacaThera is currently a resident company at the Johnson & Johnson Innovation – JLABS incubator (JLABS @ Toronto).
FinSMEs
03/10/2019