Inflabloc Pharmaceuticals Inc. raised $6 million in its Series C round to fund Phase II studies of its lead inflammatory disease drugs, as well as to continue development of a preclinical oncology pipeline acquired through its recent merger with MantiCore Pharmaceuticals Inc.

The financing was led by Zurich, Switzerland-based Friedli Corporate Finance and Salt Lake City-based vSpring Capital.

"We have two products in Phase II, so funds will be used to complete those trials," said Dinesh Patel, managing director and founding partner of vSpring Capital, and acting CEO of Inflabloc.

Depending on the progression of the studies, the "current funding should last about 12 to 15 months," Patel added.

Founded in 1991 in Salt Lake City as Paradigm Biosciences, the company was based on technology licensed from the University of Utah using dehydroepiandrosterone (DHEA) to evaluate it as a therapeutic in acute inflammation.

Ten years ago, the firm changed its name to Pharmadigm and began developing oral and intravenous formulations of DHEA. As Pharmadigm, the company raised more than $30 million in venture capital.

The firm then underwent a recapitalization and changed its name to Inflabloc.

"Since the recap, it’s brought it about $12 million total," Patel told BioWorld Today.

Though still developing drugs based on DHEA, Inflabloc’s approach has changed, focusing more on drug delivery and "improving the bioavailability of DHEA for inflammatory diseases," Patel said.

"We’re also looking at combination" drug products that rely on DHEA as the primary active ingredient, she added.

The first Phase II study is evaluating a DHEA combination product in patients with Crohn’s disease, and a second Phase II trial is testing the drug as a treatment for hyperlipidemia.

The recent financing coincided with the closing of Inflabloc’s merger with MantiCore, another Salt Lake City firm.

In fact, both companies were located "in the same building, and Inflabloc was partly managing [MantiCore’s] R&D function," Patel said. "And MantiCore previously was funded by Friedli, as well."

MantiCore was founded in 1996 based on technology for attaching drugs and diagnostic agents to cobalamin (vitamin B12) to create bioconjugates that target cancer cells. Inflabloc was looking "at some different drugs in B12, so we saw some overlap there," Patel said.

Inflabloc plans to continue the ongoing preclinical development of potential compounds, which are in animal studies.

Financial terms of the merger were not disclosed.

In other financing news:

• Chaperone Technologies Inc., of Scranton, Pa., said that the Life Sciences Greenhouse of Central Pennsylvania invested $100,000 to advance the development of the company’s antimicrobial technologies. Potential applications of the technologies include treatment of infections often acquired during hospital stays, such as surgical wound and complicated urinary tract infections.

• EntreMed Inc., of Rockville, Md., closed its previously announced private placement of common stock and warrants, raising $30 million. The company issued about 13 million shares and warrants to purchase up to 6.5 million additional shares. Proceeds will be used to advance development of its three lead oncology programs, including Panzem NCD (2-methoxyestradiol, or 2ME2), in Phase II trials in multiple myeloma and recurring glioblastoma multiforme. Shares of EntreMed (NASDAQ:ENMD) closed at $2.32 Thursday, up 9 cents. (See BioWorld Today, Feb. 6, 2006.)

• Microbix Biosystems Inc., of Toronto, completed a C$1 million (US$874,000) financing agreement that will be used to operate a facility in Toronto for the production of urokinase. The financing is in the form of a 9 percent convertible debenture, with the principal amount convertible into shares at 90 cents per share for a 10-year period. Microbix previously acquired all the assets and use of the GMP manufacturing plant from Genpharm Inc., an affiliate of Darmstadt, Germany-based Merck KGaA.

• Samaritan Pharmaceuticals Inc., of Las Vegas, entered a third financial transaction with Fusion Capital in Chicago, and received approval to list additional shares of its common stock, as part of the $40 million Fusion Capital common stock purchase agreement from the American Stock Exchange.