MITHRIDION, INC
Alzheimer’s Disease Drug Developer Closes Series A Funding
Madison, Wisconsin, Tuesday April 17, 2007 -- Mithridion, Inc., a drug development company focusing on Alzheimer’s disease (AD), announces that it has closed an additional $1.2 million of Series A funding. This brings the total equity capital raised in the past year to $2.2 million, well above Mithridion’s initial funding target. The company will use the funds to develop drug candidates aimed at stopping or slowing down disease progression in this devastating disorder.
Venture Investors (VI) led the latest round. Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation (WARF), and Rosetta Partners (Lake Forest, Illinois), both existing shareholders, also participated in the latest funding. Rosetta Partners, together with Wisconsin Investment Partners (Madison, Wisconsin.), provided the earlier Series A funding for the company.
Paul M. Weiss Ph.D. MBA, a Managing Director of VI, will join Mithridion’s board of directors.
“We are delighted that VI has joined our shareholders and board, and delighted to have the continued support of WARF and Rosetta. This funding will be used to advance our drug leads (prototype drugs) towards future clinical trials, building on the good progress we have made in just over a year since we started operations”, said Trevor M. Twose, Ph.D., the company’s Chief Executive. “In particular, it will enable us to enhance greatly our drug development capabilities by investing in additional advanced analytical technologies,” he added.
“Venture Investors is excited to become an investor in Mithridion and to have the opportunity to assist them as they advance their compounds towards clinical trials” said Paul Weiss, of Venture Investors. “Mithridion has assembled a great team with extensive pharmaceutical industry experience and is using a novel approach for the treatment of AD, which continues to be a severe unmet medical need. I look forward to working with the company to accelerate their drug development efforts.”
The company’s technology was developed at the UW-Madison School of Pharmacy. In June 2005, Mithridion signed a license agreement with the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation (WARF), the UW’s technology transfer arm, receiving worldwide exclusive rights to the technology.
“WARF is making this investment because we are pleased with the management team that is in place and the company’s progress,” said Andrew Cohn, Government and Public Relations Manager, WARF.
Mithridion is based at the University Research Park in Madison, Wisconsin. The company was formed in early 2005 by Twose (through the vehicle of Biopons, Inc., a Fitchburg-based biotechnology consulting company), Jeffrey A. Johnson, Ph.D., an associate professor with the UW-Madison School of Pharmacy, and Thor D. Stein, M.D., Ph.D., of the UW-Madison School of Pharmacy. Johnson and Stein are co-inventors of the company’s initial technology. Johnson and Stein serve as senior scientific advisers to the company, and Stein as a board director. The Company commenced operations in February 2006 on receiving its first Series A funding, which enabled the company to equip its laboratories, hire scientific staff, and begin work on its drug leads. The company now has a team of 11 people.
Venture Investors is a venture capital firm with $190 million under management. The firm invests in seed and early-stage life science and technology companies in the Midwest, with a primary focus on opportunities that spin out of the region's leading research universities. Formed in 1982, Venture Investors has offices strategically located next to the country's third and fourth largest research institutions in Ann Arbor, Michigan and Madison, Wisconsin. For additional information on the firm, visit www.ventureinvestors.com.
Rosetta Partners LLC is an investment management firm in Lake Forest, Illinois, dealing exclusively in public and private early stage biotechnology companies.
WARF is a private, non-profit organization, whose mission is to support scientific research at the UW-Madison. WARF accomplishes this by patenting inventions arising from university research, licensing the technologies to companies for commercialization, and returning the licensing income to the UW-Madison to support further scientific endeavor. Since making its first grant of $1,200 in 1928, WARF has contributed more than $750 million dollars to the UW-Madison, including monies to fund research, build facilities, purchase lands and equipment, and support a bevy of faculty and graduate student fellowships each year.
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