BioWorld International Correspondent

PARIS - Neuro3d closed a third funding round at the end of July in which it raised €10 million from the four European venture capital funds that invested in the company in the two earlier rounds.

They are Paris-based Sofinnova Partners; the Paris office of Apax Partners, which provided Neuro3d with all its initial funding of €3.7 million in November 2000 and nearly half the €20 million it raised in September 2002; HealthCap, of Stockholm, Sweden; and Techno Venture Management (TVM), of Munich, Germany, which led the second financing round.

Neuro3d now has raised 33.7 million since it was founded in late 2000.

Based in the eastern city of Mulhouse, Neuro3d is discovering and developing drugs for the treatment or prevention of central nervous system diseases, focusing on three types of CNS disorder in particular: schizophrenia, depression and anxiety.

The additional financing will enable it to start the clinical development of two more drug candidates. The two products are being developed for depression and anxiety, and have been in preclinical development since 2002.

In addition, Phase II trials of its lead compound, the atypical antipsychotic Ocaperidone, being developed for schizophrenia, are due to begin in December. Neuro3d is co-developing Ocaperidone with Janssen Pharmaceutica NV, the Belgium-based subsidiary of Johnson & Johnson, of New Brunswick, N.J., with which Neuro3d signed a licensing agreement in March 2002 giving Janssen exclusive worldwide rights to the drug.

A Phase I trial is nearing completion and, as Neuro3d's CEO, Charles Woler, told BioWorld International, the Phase II now is expected to be completed in September or October 2004, some six months later than originally scheduled. At that point, Janssen will have to decide whether to continue development of the drug. If it decides not to, Neuro3d would have the possibility of licensing it out to another company.

Woler pointed out that Neuro3d would bear the whole cost of the Phase II, as it has for the Phase I trial. But he added that the company did not immediately need the additional funds it had raised. "I raised the money because the context was right and in anticipation of future needs," he said.

In May, Neuro3d acquired the Strasbourg-based contract research organization Neurofit for an undisclosed sum. The integration of Neurofit, which was specialized in in vitro/in vivo preclinical pharmacological studies of therapeutics for CNS and peripheral nervous system disorders, means Neuro3d can now handle all its preclinical research and development in-house. (See BioWorld International, May 28, 2003.)

Neurofit continues to provide services to third parties, and Woler confirmed that those activities are expected to generate revenues of at least €1 million a year.

Neuro3d currently employs 37 people (including the 15-strong Neurofit work force) and has just appointed two new members to its board of directors: Ronald Lindsay, scientific director and vice president research and development of diaDexus Inc., of South San Francisco; and Patrick J. Zenner, a career executive of the Swiss pharmaceutical Roche, of Basel, who was once chairman of Hoffmann-La Roche North America.