TauRx Pharmaceuticals Receives $10.5m Follow-On Investment from Dundee Corporation
Dundee Corporation maintains 5% stake in company developing a revolutionary treatment for Alzheimer's Disease
TORONTO and SINGAPORE, March 4, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- TauRx Pharmaceuticals Ltd. ("TauRx") announced today the receipt of an equity investment of USD10.5m from Dundee Corporation of Toronto ("Dundee"). The investment will be used by TauRx primarily to support the on-going program of three Phase 3 clinical trials of LMTX™, its novel compound currently in development as a disease-modifying treatment for Alzheimer's Disease ("AD") and behavioural-variant Fronto-Temporal Dementia ("bvFTD").
Dundee made its initial investment of USD20m in TauRx in September 2011. Ned Goodman , President and Chief Executive Officer of Dundee, said: "TauRx has made good use of our initial investment, gaining regulatory clearance to initiate its Phase 3 study program for LMTX™ and establishing a network of experienced service providers to support the studies. With the first patients now being enrolled into each of the three studies, and with the recent substantial strategic investment from the Genting Berhad group, this seems a highly opportune time to exercise the option we were granted by TauRx at the time of the initial investment and maintain Dundee's 5% interest in this commercially and scientifically promising company."
Professor Claude Wischik , Executive Chairman and Co-Founder of TauRx, said: "It is particularly gratifying to receive this follow-on investment from Dundee. It made its initial investment at a time of critical importance to the development of both TauRx and our Tau aggregation inhibitor, LMTX™, and we see this additional investment of USD10.5m as a welcome vote of confidence in the commercial potential of our technology from a highly experienced investor. We continue to believe strongly that Tau aggregation inhibition is the most promising approach to the long-term treatment of AD and other Tau-opathies such as bvFTD. With expanding patient populations throughout the world due to an aging population, and with products based on beta-amyloid clearance still producing disappointing results in clinical studies, it is now critically important for healthcare systems, patients, their families and their careers to bring an effective treatment for these devastating diseases to market."
About TauRx Therapeutics:
TauRx Therapeutics Ltd was established in Singapore in 2002 with the aim of developing new treatments and diagnostics for a range of neurodegenerative diseases based on an entirely new approach which targets aggregates of abnormal fibres of Tau protein that form inside nerve cells in the brain. The TauRx team have since discovered that LMTX™ could also have beneficial effects in several other neurodegenerative diseases associated with Tau pathology, as well as other protein aggregation disorders including Parkinson's, Huntington's and Frontotemporol Dementia [FTD-Pick's Disease]. The TauRx corporate headquarters are in Singapore and its primary research facilities are in Aberdeen, Scotland.
About Dundee Corporation:
Dundee Corporation is a Canadian independent publicly traded asset management company listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange ("TSX") under the symbol "DC.A". Asset management activities are focused in the areas of the corporation's core competencies and include resources, real estate and infrastructure, and more recently, the agriculture sector. These activities are carried out by Dundee's wholly owned subsidiary, Goodman Investment Counsel Inc. Dundee's capital markets and personal investment advisory services are carried out through the "Dundee Capital Markets" and "Dundee Goodman Private Wealth" divisions of its wholly owned subsidiary, Dundee Securities Ltd. Dundee also owns and manages direct investments in its core focus areas and other select investments, through ownership, directly and indirectly, of both publicly listed and private companies.
SOURCE TauRx Pharmaceuticals Ltd.