Palobiofarma closes fourth round of funding for €4.5 millions
The biotechnology firm, which is moving its headquarters from the Barcelona Science Park to the Navarran European Business Innovation Center, expects to have four drugs in the clinical phases by 2015.
By Biocat
Palobiofarma has closed their largest round of funding yet, led by the Society for the Development of Navarra (Sodena) and venture capital firms Inveready Biotech II and Fitalent. Investors have contributed, on top of public grants, a total of €4.5 millions, which will cover the development of four compounds in the clinical phases over the coming two years: PBF-509 to treat type-2 diabetes and PBF-680 for asthma will be taken to proof-of-concept in patients, and PBF-695 to treat glaucoma and PBF-999 for schizophrenia, which have proven effective in animal models, will be developed through the initial clinical phases.
This biotechnology firm created in 2006 has a platform to generate selective adenosine receptor antagonists and agonists. If the projects move forward according to plan, Palobiofarma will have a pipeline of four products in the clinical phases for four different indications by 2015, "one of the most attractive on the European biotechnology scene," according to the company.
The investment will also allow the company to move their headquarters, currently located in the Barcelona Science Park (PCB), to the business incubator at the Navarran European Business Innovation Center (CEIN), where the company will start up a new research laboratory.
Palobiofarma is headed up by Julio Castro, PhD in Chemistry from the University of Konstanz (Germany) with more than 10 years of experience in pharmaceutical research at companies like Bayer, Almirall and Oryzon Genomics, and Juan Camacho, PhD in Chemistry from the University of Jena (Germany) who has also been linked to the pharmaceutical sector for more than 15 years.