Drug development co Chiasma raises $70m

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The company will use the funds to prepare for the commercial launch of its treatment for acromegaly, a growth hormone disorder.

Biopharmaceutical developer Chiasma Inc. has announced the closing of a $70 million Series E financing round. Participants in the financing round include new investors Rock Springs Capital and Sofinnova Ventures, and an undisclosed blue chip public investment fund, as well as existing investors MPM Capital, F2 Capital, 7 Med Health Ventures, Abingworth and ARCH Venture Partners.

The company is developing octreotide capsules, its lead product for the orphan condition acromegaly (a disorder stemming from an excess of growth hormones). Chiasma is headquartered in Jerusalem and Newton, Massachusetts.

This latest financing round is an increase on the $33.5 million that the company reportedly raised in December. The financing closes the disappointing chapter in which Roche last August cancelled a $600 million commercialization deal signed in February 2013 because it was decreasing its strategic focus on hormone-based drugs. Due to its premature cancelation, Chiasma's revenue from the deal totaled only a $65 million advance and several more tens of millions of dollars as payments for milestones.

Chiasma intends to use the new capital to build its sales and marketing capabilities and prepare for the US commercial launch of its lead product, octreotide capsules for adults with acromegaly, a rare endocrine disease. The company intends to submit a New Drug Application (NDA) to the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for octreotide capsules in the second quarter of 2015 and, if the NDA is approved, to launch the product in the US soon afterwards. If approved, octreotide capsules would be the first and only oral somatostatin analog, providing another option to patients currently receiving painful injections.

Chiasma will also conduct additional clinical studies for octreotide capsules to support approval in the European Union and advance new product candidates based on its proprietary Transient Permeability Enhancer (TPE) technology into preclinical development.

Chiasma CEO Roni Mamluk said, "The commitment from both new and existing investors provide us with the resources to advance our regulatory efforts, prepare for a successful launch of octreotide capsules, test oral octreotide capsules for additional indications and further invest in earlier-stage TPE programs that can fuel our growth over the long term. With this financing in place, we are well positioned to advance a portfolio of oral drugs that address unmet needs in orphan indications."

Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on March 1, 2015

© Copyright of Globes Publisher Itonut (1983) Ltd. 2015

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