Evanston, IL's Naurex nailed down another $25 million in venture funding to accelerate its two-pronged depression program, posting positive midstage results for its top prospect. The latest funding comes entirely from existing shareholders, the biotech said, a group that includes the venture arms of Baxter ($BAX), Lundbeck, Takeda and Shire ($SHPG). Naurex's pipeline drugs work by modulating the brain's NMDA receptors, and the company's lead candidate, GLYX-13, charted rapid and sustained antidepressant effects in a 400-patient Phase IIb study, the company said, confirming its earlier promise. Next in line is NRX-1074, an orally active treatment for major depressive disorder that Naurex has just moved into Phase II. "GLYX-13 and NRX-1074 are at the forefront of a new class of subtype-selective NMDA receptor modulators that could represent a major breakthrough in CNS medicine and the effort to address the suffering of people battling difficult-to-treat depression," investigator Dr. Sheldon Preskorn said in a statement. More