FeRx Inc. raised $15 million in a private placement that will fund its ongoing registration trial and other studies.

The company has raised $42 million since its inception in 1997, said FeRx President and CEO Jacqueline Johnson.

"It's primarily earmarked for completing our registration studies, and also it will pay for other clinical trials in other indications for the lead product," she said. "And, it will pay for introducing a second product into the clinic."

San Diego-based FeRx's lead product is MTC-DOX, a magnetic targeted carrier technology delivering the anticancer drug doxorubicin. It is in a Phase II/III trial for primary liver cancer that is scheduled for completion in early 2004. The company anticipates a new drug application filing later in 2004.

FeRx is partnered with Elan Corp. plc, of Dublin, Ireland, for MTC-DOX, although FeRx retains commercialization rights outside the United States and Europe. Elan is paying 20 percent of the development costs for the studies being conducted by FeRx. FeRx is seeking Asian partners for the drug.

FeRx's magnetic targeted carrier technology involves magnetic particles that have the ability to carry pharmaceutical agents. The MTC technology delivers drugs to desired sites using an externally positioned magnet. The microparticles are 1 micron to 2 microns in size and composed of elemental iron and activated carbon. With a catheter, the drug is injected into the body and delivered directly to the tumor. The microparticles remain after the magnet is removed.

The power of the technology, Johnson said, is that the microparticles are delivered deep into the tumor.

"It's not a biological mechanism," she said. "It's a physical mechanism by which drug-carrying particles are pulled into the tumor."

The advantage of the technology is that it is designed to limit the side effects that occur when chemotherapeutics are administered systemically, the company said.

Johnson said the next product to enter the clinic likely will be a radioisotope or small molecule.

"We'll determine that by the end of the year," she said.

In May, FeRx reported at the Digestive Disease Week meeting in San Francisco data from studies using the MTC technology. The company said preclinical results suggested its MTCs are a feasible tool for drug delivery to the gastrointestinal tract and may be useful to treat diseases such as inflammatory bowl disease and cancerous tumors of the esophagus, stomach and colon, via an intraluminal route of administration.

The company previously demonstrated delivery of MTCs via intra-arterial and intravesical routes of administration, which could have applicability in treatment of liver and bladder tumors.

In April, FeRx reported that preclinical studies had shown that MTCs may have utility as carriers for a range of pharmaceutical agents, including peptides and proteins.

New investors Johnson & Johnson Development Corp. and GE Capital's Capital Funding group co-led the round. Existing investors that participated were Elan International Services Ltd., Brentwood Associates VIII LP and California Technology Ventures LLC.