BioWorld International Correspondent

PARIS - Endotis Pharma, which is developing small-glyco drugs for applications in thrombosis and oncology, completed a series B financing in which it raised €25 million (US$36.93 million).

The funding round was led by the Wellcome Trust, of London, and the other participants were Sofinnova Partners, of Paris, Endeavour Vision, of Geneva, and NIF SMBC Ventures, of Tokyo.

All are new investors except Sofinnova Partners, which provided Endotis with the capital of €4 million it raised in an initial funding round completed in June 2006. Altogether, the company has garnered total funding of €34 million since it was founded in February 2003.

Endotis Pharma, which is now based at the Biocitech biotechnology science and business park in the Paris suburb of Romainville but also retains a research facility in the northern town of Lille, is exploiting its expertise in the area of protein-sugar interactions for synthesizing sugars able to regulate or disrupt those interactions.

The company has developed a proprietary technology platform based on synthetic and medicinal sugar chemistry to synthesize small glyco-drugs.

Its therapeutic strategy is to modulate the biological activities and the bioavailability of sugar-binding molecules involved in life-threatening diseases by modulating protein-sugar interactions, either with biological drugs or with small glyco-drugs, a new class of small molecules, or synthetic sugars.

Endotis said it will use the funds raised to finance the development of its portfolio of preclinical and clinical-stage compounds in-licensed from the Dutch company Organon Biosciences, a subsidiary of Schering Plough, of Kenilworth, N.J., as well as push ahead with its in-house drug discovery programs

Its in-licensed products are oligosaccharides-based compounds being developed for the prevention of arterial thrombosis. They are EP42675, an anticoagulant that has completed two Phase I clinical trials and is scheduled to enter Phase II in early 2009; EP217609, a neutralizable form of EP42675 at the preclinical stage; and EP224283, a neutralizable antithrombotic, which also is in preclinical development.

The company is engaged in two in-house discovery programs. One is focused on the oral prevention and treatment of venous and arterial thromboses and is at the lead optimization stage, while the other is centered on compounds with activity against certain biological factors involved in angiogenesis, tumor growth and metastasis and is at the discovery stage.

Welcoming the completion of this financing, Endotis Pharma's chairman and CEO, Charles Woler, said: "This round will enable us, firstly, to accelerate development of the three advanced antithrombotics to which we acquired the exclusive development and commercialization rights from Organon; secondly, to actively progress our in-house programs originated from Endotis' unique oligosaccharides know-how; and thirdly to also consider other development strategies."