Pharnext closes €4.8M funding round

Pharnext SAS, a specialist in drug repurposing and developing new combinations of registered drugs for treating severe neurological diseases, using its Pleotherapy technology, has closed a €4.8-million first round. This gives the company a valuation of €45 million.

Part of the new investment was provided by Pharnext's co-founding investor Truffle Capital, which remains the majority shareholder. The other investors are Aurinvest Capital 2, Financière Boscary and a group of some of France’s best-known entrepreneurs: Charles Beigbeder (founder of Selftrade, Poweo, Audacia and AgroGeneration), Claude Darmon (former President of the CEGELEC group) and Olivier Fulconis (former Executive VP and Chief Marketing Officer at Converteam).

The money will enable Pharnext to work towards the first-in-man clinical trials of its Pleodrug in the treatment of Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease before the end of 2010. Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease is a chronic, severe, invalidating neuromuscular disease which affects 3 million people worldwide and for which there is no cure at present.

The fundraising will also help initiate and/or continue in vitro and in vivo research programmes, using the company’s Pleotherapy platform to find new applications for existing drugs and drug combinations, in other serious pathologies including Alzheimer’s disease, chemotherapy-induced peripheral neuropathy, polycystic kidney disease, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, hyperlipidaemia and diabetes.

“We are delighted to have closed this first round of fundraising and are pleased to welcome our new shareholders Aurinvest, Financière Boscary and a group of well-known, successful entrepreneurs. They have recognised the potential of our scientific approach, our staff’s expertise and the pertinence of our strategic vision. We particularly thank our co-founding investor Truffle Capital for its unconditional support,” said Daniel Cohen, Pharnext’s founder, President and CEO.

“These funds will enable us to implement and execute the first-in-man clinical trials of our Pleodrug in the treatment of Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease. This is a key milestone for the company, which has grown rapidly since its incorporation less than three years ago. The investment will also help accelerate our research into Pleodrugs for six other serious diseases,” Cohen said.

At its formation in December 2007, Pharnext raised €2.5-million round of seed fundraising from Truffle Capital (December 2007). It subsequently sealed two agreements with the pharmaceutical group Ipsen, potentially worth up to €94 million in upfront and milestone payments in June 2009.

The work on Charcot-Marie-Tooth was funded by an initial grant from Oséo, the French state innovation agency in 2007. The company also received a grant from the French Muscular Dystrophy Association in 2009.

Pleotherapy, based on network pharmacology, can be used in the identification of rational drug combinations, or Pleodrugs (pleo is a Greek prefix meaning more) made up of individual compounds. The company says finding new applications for existing drugs could provide a solution to the ongoing and worrying decline in pharmaceutical pipeline productivity.