OncoNano Medicine, Inc., a Southlake, Texas-based company that provides a pH-activated compound platform for disease detection and treatment, closed a $11.7m Series A financing.
The transaction was arranged by Salem Partners, who also participated as a principal investor. The Series A funding supplements a $6 million grant previously received from the Cancer Prevention and Research Institute of Texas (CPRIT).
The company intends to use the funds for continued clinical development of a new class of pH-activated compounds that digitalize and exploit the variability of pH in disease indications such as cancer.
Led by Ravi Srinivasan, Ph.D., founder, President and Chief Executive Officer, OncoNano Medicine is developing a new class of pH-activated compounds that digitalize and exploit the variability of pH in disease.
The company’s first program with its pH-activated compound platform is ONM-100, an injectable imaging agent that targets the acidic pH within tumors to distinguish cancer cells from healthy tissue during surgery. The delivery of ONM-100 is designed to fit with current surgical practices and can be employed during all steps of cancer surgery including intraoperative, cancer staging and post-surgery evaluation.
The technology and compounds were invented at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center by:
– Dr. Jinming Gao, Professor of Pharmacology and Otolaryngology, and
– Dr. Baran D. Sumer, Associate Professor of Otolaryngology with the Harold C. Simmons Comprehensive Cancer Center.
After co-founding OncoNano, Drs. Gao and Sumer remain on the Scientific Advisory Board while continuing to conduct research in related areas.
The company has also introduced new Board of Directors, including:
– Al Guillem, Ph.D., Chairman of the Board, Former President of ZS Pharma, Inc.
– Ravi Srinivasan, Ph.D., Founder and CEO of OncoNano Medicine
– John Dyett, Founder and Managing Director of Salem Partners, LLC
– Paritosh Dhawale, Ph.D., General Manager of Contrast Media at GE Healthcare
– Joydeep Goswami, Ph.D., President, Clinical NGS and Oncology at Thermo Fisher Scientific
FinSMEs
17/05/2018