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10/06/2005
In-Licenses Phase II Drug for Oral Mucositis in Cancer Patients
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DURHAM, N.C., Oct. 6 /PRNewswire/ -- Serenex, Inc., an integrated oncology-focused drug discovery and development company, announced today that it has raised $30 million in a Series C private placement of preferred stock. Ritchie Capital led the round which included existing investors Intersouth Partners, Lilly Ventures, Mediphase Venture Partners, Takeda Research Investment and Seaflower Ventures.
Serenex also announced that it has in-licensed worldwide rights to develop and commercialize SNX-1012 for chemotherapy and radiation-induced oral mucositis from Mucosal Therapeutics, LLC. Oral mucositis is one of the most debilitating adverse events related to cancer treatment, yet options for treatment are currently limited. Affecting approximately 450,000 patients in the U.S. alone, oral mucositis frequently causes physicians to interrupt prescribed cycles of chemotherapy or radiation treatment, which can lead to decreases in the efficacy of these treatments. SNX-1012, which targets multiple inflammatory and other key pathways involved in the pathophysiology of oral mucositis, has successfully completed Phase I clinical studies in which it demonstrated an excellent safety profile and strongly suggested efficacy. Serenex is scheduled to begin Phase II efficacy trials of SNX-1012 in early 2006. Financial terms of the in-license were not disclosed.
Dr. Richard Kent, M.D., CEO and President of Serenex stated, "We are extremely pleased to have Ritchie Capital join our existing group of investors in our Series C round. This investment validates our strategy of building an integrated discovery and development oncology company by combining our emerging pre-clinical pipeline with late-stage clinical assets. This round of financing provides us with the resources to add to our development team, advance SNX-1012 through Phase II and move our internally developed novel Hsp90 inhibitor into Phase I.
Dr. Kent added, "In line with our strategy of building a broad oncology pipeline, we have identified a second promising Phase II product. If we choose to in-license this we will expand our Series C round."
In conjunction with the financing, Devin Hosea, Director of Ritchie Capital's Biotechnology Venture Group will join the Serenex Board of Directors. "Serenex is an exciting opportunity for us," said Devin Hosea. "The company has a very experienced management team and we see SNX-1012 as a best-in-class asset in a large and underserved market."
About Ritchie Capital
Ritchie Capital is a diversified alternative asset management firm established in 1998 with interests in private equity, venture capital, hedge funds, commodities, insurance, energy and real estate and with offices in Chicago and Geneva IL, New York, London, Bermuda, Hong Kong and Menlo Park, CA. Ritchie Capital's Biotechnology Venture Group invests in late-stage private and publicly traded life science companies and takes an active, long term role in developing its portfolio companies into successful businesses.
About Serenex
Serenex is an integrated oncology-focused drug discovery and development company. The company's mission is to improve the lives of cancer patients by developing proprietary therapeutic and supportive care products. Serenex's clinical-stage program, SNX-1012, is a supportive care product for chemotherapy and radiation-induced oral mucositis which is scheduled to begin Phase II clinical trials in early 2006. Additionally, Serenex has a novel pre- clinical small molecule inhibitor of Heat Shock Protein 90 which is scheduled to begin clinical trials in 2006. Hsp90 is a chaperone protein for a variety of oncogenes (such as Her2 and Raf) and their downstream signaling molecules (such as Akt and Erk). Serenex's pipeline is fed by a proprietary chemoproteomics platform which enables the company to profile compounds, in high throughput, against thousands of important therapeutic and toxicity targets simultaneously. By screening compounds in this manner Serenex is able to better understand specificity and toxicity issues, drive structure-activity relationships (SAR) and help determine mechanism of action. Since 2001 Serenex has worked with leading biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies in return for revenues and milestone payments.
Website: http://www.serenex.com.
CONTACT:
Ian Howes, CFO & Sr. V.P. Corporate Development, Serenex, Inc.
919/281-6001 ihowes@serenex.com
Michelle Linn, Linnden Communications
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