Inveready invests in biotechnology firm Avizorex

Venture capital firm Inveready has invested €800,000 in Avizorex, a spin-off based in the Barcelona Science Park founded in 2013 by Patrick Tresserras and professor Carlos Belmonte, of the Instituto de Neurociencias de Alicante. The Inveready funds, in addition to the public grants the biotechnology firm has received, bring the total sum for this round of funding to €2.5 millions.

Avizorex, which participated in the latest edition of the BioEmprenedorXXI program –an initiative promoted by Barcelona Activa, Biocat and the "la Caixa" Foundation-focuses on drug development in ophthalmology. The company’s research centers on the growing problem of dry-eye syndrome with an innovative therapeutic approach that has been validated in animal models and is based on activating cold thermoreceptors in the eye to stimulate basal tearing.

The spin-off’s discovery was published in the journal Nature Medicine in 2010 and showed that stimulation of the TRMP8 protein activates cold receptors on the surface of the eye, increasing tear production naturally and thus reducing dryness.

There is currently only one prescription drug to treat this problem, Restasis® from Allergan. This is a generic formulation of the immunosuppressant cyclosporine discovered at the University of Georgia 20 years ago. There are also other developments in the advanced clinical phases but these have low levels of innovation. The most promising include MIM-D3, a TrkA antagonist discovered at McGill University and developed by Mimetogen.