Israeli start-up Gelesis Inc. has closed its latest financing round, raising $16 million from OrbiMed Advisers and the company's existing investors, PureTech Ventures, Queensland Bio-Capital Fund, and ExoTech Bio Solutions and Israel-United States Binational Industrial Research and Development Foundation which made an initial investment of $1 million. Gelesis has raised $2 million to date and is currently operating in stealth mode.
Genesis, which was founded in 2006 by PureTech Ventures and ExoTech Bio Solutions with the participation of a group of obesity experts and scientists, is developing an innovative treatment for obesity and other gastrointestinal disorders. According to reports abroad, the company is developing a capsule containing a substance, which when ingested by patients will swell inside their abdomen suppressing their appetite, until it is excreted.
PureTech principal Dr. Eric Elenko said Gelesis would use the capital raised to speed up the development of its obesity treatment. "With more than 190 million suffering from obesity in the US alone, this is clearly a rapidly growing market," he added.
Gelesis's founding team includes CEO Yishai Zohar, a former Israel Air force pilot, and Mandy Axelrad, founder and CFO of ExoTech. Among the members of the company's advisory board are Dr. Stephen Woods, professor of psychiatry, and director of the Obesity Research Center at the University of Cincinnati, Dr. Lee Kaplan director of the Massachusetts General Hospital Weight Center, Dr. James Hill professor of medicine & pediatrics, and director of the Center for Human Nutrition, at the University of Colorado Denver, Dr. Elazar Edelman, professor of medicine at Harvard University and director at the Harvard-MIT Biomedical Engineering Center, and Dr. David Feigal, former director of the Center for Devices & Radiological Health at US Food and Drug Administration (FDA).
OrbiMed is the world's largest healthcare investment fund with $6 billion in assets under management. It has invested in 70 companies at varying stages worldwide to date.
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes.co.il - on January 22, 2008
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