Arix Bioscience participates in $20 million fundraise for Mitoconix Bio
Series A finance raised by high quality investor syndicate for neurodegenerative diseases therapies
LONDON, 27 June, 2017: Arix Bioscience plc (LSE: ARIX) ("Arix Bioscience" or the "Company"), a global healthcare and life science company supporting medical innovation, today announces that it has acquired an interest in Mitoconix Bio Ltd. ("Mitoconix Bio") as part of an oversubscribed $20 million Series A financing round.
Mitoconix Bio is pioneering a novel strategy to improve mitochondrial function as a disease-modifying therapeutic for treating neurodegenerative disorders, including Huntington's, Parkinson's and Alzheimer's diseases.
Proceeds from the Series A financing will be used to advance the Company's lead product, MTC-1203, through pre-clinical and clinical development, and to expand its therapeutic pipeline to treat additional neurodegenerative disorders by improving mitochondrial function.
Arix Bioscience participated alongside existing investors including OrbiMed and new investors Remiges Ventures, which led the round, the Dementia Discovery Fund and RMGP Bio-Pharma Investment Fund. Jonathan Tobin of Arix Bioscience will join Mitoconix Bio's Board as an Observer.
Mitoconix Bio is developing proprietary compounds that inhibit the interaction between proteins that regulate mitochondrial processes implicated in neurodegeneration, thereby inhibiting excessive mitochondrial division and preventing cell injury without affecting physiological fission and normal cell functions. MTC-1203 is a first-in-class disease-modifying therapeutic for treating Huntington's disease and other neurodegenerative disorders for which current treatment is symptomatic only.
Mitoconix Bio, founded in 2016 at the FutuRx biotechnology incubator in Israel, is based on IP developed by Professor Daria Mochly-Rosen and her team at Stanford University and led by CEO Dr Eyal Neria. Prof. Mochly Rosen is also the founder and co-director of SPARK, the translational research programme at Stanford University, and was the founder and CSO of Kai Pharmaceuticals, a peptide therapeutic company that was acquired by Amgen in 2011 for $315 million.
Joe Anderson, Chief Executive Officer of Arix Bioscience plc, commented: "We are pleased to have participated in Mitoconix Bio's Series A and to be joining the Company alongside an impressive list of investors. Neurodegenerative diseases present a huge unmet clinical need to which Mitoconix Bio, founded on the ground-breaking IP by serial entrepreneur Prof. Mochly-Rosen and her team at Stanford University, is well-placed to develop an answer. Mitoconix is an exciting company whose work complements Arix's focus on dynamic healthcare and life science innovation."
For more information, please contact:
Arix Bioscience plc Joe Anderson, CEO +44 (0) 20 7290 1052
Consilium Strategic Communications Mary-Jane Elliott, Jessica Hodgson, Ivar Milligan +44 (0)20 3709 5700 arix@consilium-comms.com
About Arix Bioscience plc Arix Bioscience plc is a global healthcare and life science company supporting medical innovation. Headquartered in London and with an office in New York, Arix Bioscience sources, finances and builds world class healthcare and life science businesses addressing medical innovation at all stages of development. Operations are supported by privileged access to breakthrough academic science and strategic relationships with leading research accelerators and global pharmaceutical companies. Arix Bioscience plc is listed on the Main Market of the London Stock Exchange. For further information, please visit www.arixbioscience.com
About Mitoconix Bio Ltd. Mitoconix Bio Ltd is pioneering a novel strategy to improving mitochondrial health as a disease-modifying therapeutic for neurodegenerative diseases. Mitoconix Bio's lead drug is a first-in-class inhibitor of pathological mitochondrial fragmentation and dysfunction with demonstrated in vivo efficacy in animal models of Huntington's (HD) and Parkinson's diseases (PD) and beneficial activity in patient-derived cells of HD, sporadic and genetic PD, and sporadic and genetic Alzheimer's disease (AD).
Mitoconix Bio's lead drug was developed by Prof. Daria Mochly-Rosen and her team at Stanford University. Mitoconix Bio, established in August 2016 at the FutuRx biotechnology incubator, has an exclusive license to this technology from Stanford University.
About Neurodegenerative diseases and Huntington's disease
Neurodegenerative diseases are a group of brain disorders characterized by progressive and irreversible neuronal damage and loss, including Alzheimer's, Parkinson's and Huntington's diseases. Neurodegenerative disease symptoms are diverse, but generally include decline in movement capabilities and mental abilities. Huntington's disease is a fatal genetic disorder that causes a progressive loss of nerve cells in the brain, leading to physical and mental deterioration. Growing evidence links neurodegeneration to mitochondrial dysfunction and specifically to excessive mitochondrial division, also known as mitochondrial fission.
