Terapio reels in $5M for drug delivery program

Austin-based Terapio, a tiny biotech company developing a new drug delivery technology, picked up $5 million in a Series A round today. The four-year-old biotech has four employees working on a protein-based approach to transporting molecules through cell membranes. Its seed money--$3.2 million--came from the Texas Emerging Technology Fund, the NIH and angel investors. Santé Ventures provided the Series A cash.

The developer was founded on the scientific work of UT Arlington's Dr. Sanjay Awasthi. Terapio says that the first application of its technology is as a radiation countermeasure. In animal studies its protein-- RLIP76--significantly increased overall survival of mice exposed to lethal doses of radiation, even when the protein is administered orally after radiation exposure.

"We have been following this company's scientific progress since inception," said Santé Ventures Managing Director, Kevin Lalande. "While keenly aware of the challenging fundraising environment for early-stage biopharma companies, we nevertheless found in Terapio a compelling combination of platform technology with applications in multiple large target markets and relatively modest capital requirements."

- see Terapio's release
- read the story from the Austin Business Journal