Sonexa Therapeutics, Inc., Raises $30 Million in Series A Financing to Focus on Alzheimer's Treatments
Thursday January 31
Names Board of Directors
SAN DIEGO, Jan. 31 -- Sonexa Therapeutics, Inc., a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company developing therapeutics for the treatment of Alzheimer's disease, announced today that it has raised $30 million in a Series A round of financing. The financing was led by Domain Associates, L.L.C., Scale Venture Partners and Alta Partners. Additional investors included AgeChem Venture Fund, and MC Life Science Ventures. Sonexa also announced the appointment of its Board of Directors. Sonexa founding CEO Eckard Weber, M.D., will serve as Chairman. Weber, a Partner with Domain Associates, is a founding CEO of more than a dozen biopharmaceutical companies. Additional Directors include Kim Puloma Kamdar, Ph.D., of Domain Associates, Lou Bock, a Managing Director with Scale Venture Partners, and Robert Alexander, Ph.D., with Alta Partners. The management team includes president and CMO Sharon Rogers, Ph.D., who played a leading role in developing Aricept, the top-selling Alzheimer's medication.
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Proceeds from the financing will be used to fund the licensing and development of a novel drug being tested as a therapeutic to treat Alzheimer's disease. Sonexa has licensed worldwide, exclusive rights (except for Japan and certain Asian countries) to the compound from a Japanese pharmaceutical company. Human trials in the US are scheduled to begin February '08.
About Domain Associates
Founded in 1985, Domain Associates, L.L.C. is a venture capital firm with an exclusive focus on life sciences. With $2.1 billion of capital under management, Domain is headquartered in Princeton, NJ with a second office in San Diego, CA. Domain's three major investment segments are pharmaceuticals, specialty pharmaceuticals, and medical devices, while additional areas of interest include biomaterials, bioinstrumentation, and diagnostics. The Partners of Domain have a total of close to 200 person-years of experience among them in the healthcare/venture capital industries and have been involved in the formation and growth of more than 190 life-sciences companies. For more information, visit http://www.domainvc.com.
About Scale Venture Partners
Based in Foster City, California, the ScaleVP team is a long-standing partnership with a consistent, top quartile track record of returns. Scale Venture Partners' insight-driven investment strategy, extensive operating networks and go-to-market expertise help identify and build winning portfolio companies in technology and healthcare markets. The ScaleVP team's proven skill-set and active approach provides entrepreneurs a competitive advantage for growth and category leadership. Representative portfolio companies include Alimera Sciences, Discera, Frontbridge, Glu Mobile, mBlox, Monolithic Power Systems, National Healing, NComputing, Omniture, Orexigen, ScanSafe, Somaxon, Vantage Media, Waterfront Media, Xceive and Zogenix. For more information, visit http://www.scalevp.com.
About Alta Partners
Alta Partners is a San Francisco based venture capital firm focused on life sciences investing. Founded in 1996, the firm currently manages over $2 billion in committed capital through eight venture fund programs. Alta invests in life sciences companies across the development continuum, from company formation to later-stage venture opportunities, and has funded over 110 companies in the sector to date. For more information, please visit http://www.altapartners.com.