Santhera raises €10 million; gets option on €5 million more

Investment round completed

Santhera Pharmaceuticals, a specialist in neuromuscular diseases raised €10 million with an option to call in a further €5 million, in an oversubscribed private round.

The funding was led by NGN Capital, one of Santhera’s largest current shareholders. New investors included NeoMed Management, Jersey, two equity funds managed by Schroder Investment Management, Luxembourg and BioMedinvest, Switzerland. Existing investors Carnegie Asset Management, GIMV, Dow Chemical, Clariden Biotechnology Fund, 3i plc supported the round.

Santhera has currently two compounds in four indications in mid- to late-stage clinical development and has entered three major partnerships since July 2005. The company plans to use the proceeds to further fund the clinical development programmes of its lead compound SNT-MC17/idebenone which is in Phase III for treating Friedreich’s Ataxia, with an expected market launch of 2008. The compound is also being tested in Duchenne muscular dystrophy and Leber’s hereditary optic neuropathy, a rare degenerative disorder that affects nerve cells in the retina and optic nerve, leading to rapid loss of central vision and blindness.

“We are very pleased that investor interest has allowed us to complete this series C fundraising,” said Michael Lytton, Santhera’s board chairman. “The fact that the round was oversubscribed and that the company was able to attract significant participation from new investors reflects the strength of Santhera’s clinical pipeline.”

Santhera, of Leistal, Switzerland, was formed in September 2004 by the Swiss–German merger of MyoContact AG and Graffinity Pharmaceuticals GmbH. In Jan 2006 it span Graffinity back out in a management buyout of its drug discovery unit.