13 September 2011
Ysios Capital Partners leads €29.2million Series D Financing of AM-Pharma
Barcelona, Spain, 13 September 2011 – Ysios Capital Partners, the Spanish life sciences venture capital firm, today announces that is has led the €29.2 million Series D financing of AM-Pharma B.V., a biopharmaceutical company focused on the preclinical and clinical development of Alkaline Phosphatase (AP) as a treatment of severe inflammatory diseases.
The oversubscribed series D round was led by Ysios Capital Partners, co-led by Kurma Life Science Partners and supported by a consortium including the venture arms of two global Healthcare companies, Abbott and Shire, the European venture funds, BB Biotech Ventures and Idinvest Partners as well as existing investors, Forbion Capital Partners and Inventages Venture Capital.
The current fundraising will enable AM-Pharma to advance its human recombinant form of human AP from preclinical stages through to the end of phase II as a treatment for Acute Kidney Injury (AKI). AKI is a serious condition in which the kidney function is damaged by severe inflammation (sepsis), surgery or contrast fluids. This kidney damage may then lead to patients undergoing dialysis treatment for the rest of their lives. Currently there is no effective treatment for AKI and over 700.000 AKI patients die each year. The AKI market represents a USD 2 billion opportunity. AP, an enzyme playing a protective role in anti-inflammatory conditions, has shown great potency in two AKI clinical phase II studies as well as in one Ulcerative Colitis study with bovine-derived AP. The new human recombinant AP that AM-Pharma developed will be assessed for its safety and efficacy during clinical development.
Joël Jean-Mairet of Ysios, Rémi Droller of Kurma Life Sciences Partners and Klaus Breiner of BB Biotech Ventures will join and further strengthen the existing Supervisory Board comprising of Ashok Dhanrajgir, Bart Bergstein, David Brister and Eric Claassen.
“We were delighted to have the opportunity to participate in this financing. AM-Pharma is exploring an indication of high unmet need with a truly innovative product that has shown to be effective and safe in the clinical POC trials. This is a pivotal moment to be investing in a company focused on a condition with such an attractive market opportunity”, Joël Jean-Mairet said, cofounding Partner of Ysios Capital Partners.
Erik van der Berg, CEO of AM-Pharma, commented: “This financing round builds on recent good phase II data with bovine Alkaline Phosphatase for the treatment of acute kidney injury. We are particularly pleased to have our approach validated through the additional support of large pharma.”
About Ysios Capital Partners www.ysioscapital.com.
Ysios Capital Partners is an independent venture capital firm in Spain providing private equity financing to early and mid-stage human healthcare and biotechnology companies with special focus on pharmaceuticals, diagnostics and medical devices. Ysios launched its first fund, Ysios BioFund I, of € 69 million in 2008. The investment in AM-Pharma is the 7th investment of Ysios Capital Partners: AM-Pharma BV (Bunnik, The Netherlands), STAT Diagnostica (Barcelona, Spain), Sabirmedical (Barcelona, Spain), Cardoz (Stockholm, Sweden), Endosense (Geneva, Switzerland), Biovex (now Amgen, Boston, US) and Cellerix (Madrid, now Tigenix NV NYSE Alternext:TIG).
About AM-Pharma www.am-pharma.com
AM-Pharma is a biopharmaceutical company focused on the preclinical and clinical development of Alkaline Phosphatase as protective treatment of severe inflammatory diseases. AM-Pharma is based in Bunnik, The Netherlands.
Based on the strong results of the Phase II trials with bovine Alkaline Phosphatase in Acute Kidney Injury and a Phase II trial in severe Ulcerative Colitis, AM-Pharma will replace bovine Alkaline Phosphatase with its proprietary recombinant form of human Alkaline Phosphatase. This recombinant material will be used in future trials and for commercialization. Following series D fundraising of €29.2M, AM-Pharma will finalize the GMP production of the recombinant AP further development of a recombinant human form of Alkaline Phosphatase through phase II.
