Equipped with a model for growth, Dynogen Pharmaceuticals Inc. raised $13.25 million in its first round of private equity financing.

"I think this funding is driven primarily by how we are building the company and how we are approaching development," President and CEO Lee Brettman said. "Our focus has been on building world-class in vivo pharmacology in what many would consider a scientific niche, where there are not a lot of other people focused. But that niche at the same time offers us the opportunity to address some very significant markets with unmet needs."

The total includes May seed funding from Oxford Bioscience Partners, a co-leader in the full round of financing.

The Boston-based firm, which is targeting genitourinary and gastrointestinal disorders, said it would use the funds to acquire compounds that it plans to advance toward clinical development. Brettman said the funding should last about 18 months.

During that period, Dynogen expects to pursue a number of clinical goals, including the initiation of programs in overactive bladder and sexual dysfunction. The company plans to enter a development collaboration or in-license a candidate for a related indication. Founded in March, Dynogen said it has begun discussions with potential pharmaceutical partners regarding the in-licensing of neurological and psychiatric compounds for such conditions, as well as irritable bowel syndrome.

Specifically, Dynogen initially plans to develop compounds that selectively modulate peripheral nervous system pathways. Brettman said such development is pivotal in Dynogen's plans for an overactive bladder product.

"There are certainly many other people out there doing research, development and marketing drugs in the field, but we feel there are better approaches," Brettman told BioWorld Today. "And one of the keys to selecting better approaches for clinical development in this field is having an understanding of the neurobiology. The second component is in vivo pharmacology in animal models that are predictive of clinical efficacy for compounds in this area."

Privately held Dynogen was founded in part on the neuroscience and urological knowledge of its chief scientific officer, Karl Thor, who also is the co-director of NeuroUrology Research at Duke University Medical Center in Durham, N.C. Additional management members boast a collective clinical experience that includes six marketed drugs and two others in Phase III trials.

Dynogen's research facilities are located in the Research Triangle Park region. The 12-employee firm's near-term business plan focuses on in-licensing two to three compounds with proven clinical data, but in indications other than Dynogen's interest.

"We feel that there are compounds out there that have clinical data that, with the appropriate understanding and the ability to have animal models, we can establish their effectiveness," Brettman said. "We can bring them in and get rapidly into development with a new approach to these disorders."

In the next two to three years, Brettman said Dynogen expects to have its own compounds to address targets of interest, while longer term he said the company expects to identify novel targets for genitourinary and gastrointestinal disorders.

The Series A round was led by Boston-based Oxford and Cambridge, Mass.-based HealthCare Ventures LLC, and included an investment by Raleigh, N.C.-based A.M. Pappas & Associates. Concurrent with the investment, Dynogen added a pair of directors from among its latest investors - Gus Lawlor, a general partner at HealthCare Ventures, and Myles Greenberg, a principal at A.M. Pappas.