Funding round completed
Nitec Pharma AG, a specialist in chronic inflammatory diseases, closed a US$ 26 million second round fundraising led by NGN Capital, together with existing investors Atlas Venture and Global Life Science Ventures.
The proceeds will be used to further develop Nitec’s lead product, Lodotra, in rheumatoid arthritis and other indications and to advance a second product. Lodotra is a night-time release formulation of the corticosteroid prednisone that recently successfully completed Phase III trials in rheumatoid arthritis.
Peter Johann, managing general partner of NGN Capital, will join the board of Nitec. “With the broad range of indications Lodotra can address, and with a second highly valuable compound being added to the pipeline, we see significant additional future value to being created by the company,” he said.
Lodotra is designed to address morning symptoms of rheumatoid arthritis, such as stiffness. The compound is also relevant to treating polymyalgia rheumatica, asthma and other inflammatory diseases.
Nitec was originally founded in 2004 in a spin-out from the pharmaceutical company Merck KGaA. Lodotra was originally developed at Merck in collaboration with drug delivery specialist SkyePharma plc, using SkyePharma’s GEOCLOCK technology.
Receive the Funding Newswire each Tuesday, our Policy Bulletin each Thursday, and news about bridging Europe’s east-west innovation gap twice a month in The Widening. 
A unique international forum for public research organisations and companies to connect their external engagement with strategic interests around their R&D system.