BUNNIK, The Netherlands, Sep 13, 2011 (BUSINESS WIRE) -- AM-Pharma B.V., a biopharmaceutical company focused on the preclinical and clinical development of Alkaline Phosphatase (AP) for treatment of severe inflammatory diseases, today announced that it has raised EUR29.2m in Series D financing.
The series D round was led by Ysios Capital Partners, co-led by Kurma Life Science Partners and supported by a consortium including the venture arms of two global Healthcare companies, Abbott and Shire, the European venture funds, BB Biotech Ventures and Idinvest Partners as well as existing investors, Forbion Capital Partners and Inventages Venture Capital.
The current fundraising will enable AM-Pharma to advance its human recombinant form of human AP from preclinical stages through to the end of phase II as a treatment for Acute Kidney Injury (AKI). AKI is a serious condition in which the kidney function is damaged by severe inflammation (sepsis), surgery or contrast fluids. This kidney damage may then lead to patients undergoing dialysis treatment for the rest of their lives. Currently there is no effective treatment for AKI and over 700.000 AKI patients die each year. The AKI market represents a USD 2 billion opportunity. AP, an enzyme playing a protective role in anti-inflammatory conditions, has shown great potency in two AKI clinical phase II studies as well as in one Ulcerative Colitis study with bovine-derived AP. The new human recombinant AP that AM-Pharma developed will be assessed for its safety and efficacy during clinical development.
Joel Jean-Mairet of Ysios, Remi Droller of Kurma Life Sciences Partners and Klaus Breiner of BB Biotech Ventures will join and further strengthen the existing Supervisory Board comprising of Ashok Dhanrajgir, Bart Bergstein, David Brister and Eric Claassen.
Erik van der Berg, CEO of AM-Pharma, commented:
"This financing round builds on recent good phase II data with bovine Alkaline Phosphatase for the treatment of acute kidney injury. We are particularly pleased to have our approach validated through the additional support of large pharma."
Joel Jean-Mairet, cofounding Partner of Ysios Capital Partners, added:
"We were delighted to have the opportunity to participate in this financing. AM-Pharma is exploring an indication of high unmet need with a truly innovative product that has shown to be effective and safe in the clinical POC trials. This is a pivotal moment to be investing in a company focused on a condition with such an attractive market opportunity."
Remi Droller, Partner of Kurma Life Science Partners, said:
"AM-Pharma is the perfect example of the type of company we like to support. It has a strong and experienced international management team working to address unmet clinical needs with very innovative programs and it typifies our vision to channel capital to the financing of very focused projects."
Bart Bergstein, Managing Partner of Forbion Capital Partners and Ashok Dhanrajgir, Senior Partner at Inventages Venture Capital members of the AM-Pharma Supervisory Board, concluded:
"We are very pleased with the quality, strength and diversity of the reputable investors who have decided to back AM-Pharma and support it through this pivotal development phase. This reflects the excellent work the AM-Pharma team has achieved to date and the solid data they have generated with AP."
About AM-Pharma www.am-pharma.com
AM-Pharma is a biopharmaceutical company focused on the preclinical and clinical development of Alkaline Phosphatase as protective treatment of severe inflammatory diseases. AM-Pharma is based in Bunnik, The Netherlands.
Based on the strong results of the Phase II trials with bovine Alkaline Phosphatase in Acute Kidney Injury and a Phase II trial in severe Ulcerative Colitis, AM-Pharma will replace bovine Alkaline Phosphatase with its proprietary recombinant form of human Alkaline Phosphatase. This recombinant material will be used in future trials and for commercialization. Following series D fundraising of EUR29.2M, AM-Pharma will finalize the GMP production of recombinant AP and its further development through phase II in patients.