BioWorld International Correspondent

Italian biopharmaceutical firm Newron Pharmaceuticals SpA raised EUR18.5 million (US$16.7 million) in its second funding round.

The funding round was led by Atlas Venture, of London and Boston. 3i plc, of London, which led Newron’s EUR7.5 million first round in 1998, also participated in the current transaction and remains the company’s largest shareholder, CEO Luca Benatti told BioWorld International.

Gerenzano-based Newron, which is engaged in discovery and development of drugs for central nervous system disorders, is part of a cluster of Italian companies that were spun out of big pharma R&D units. It was formed in late 1998 through a 3i-backed management buyout of the CNS research center of Pharmacia & Upjohn, now Pharmacia Corp., of Peapack, N.J. In addition to its equity funding, the company also received more than EUR6 million in state grants.

Pharmacia does not hold any equity in Newron, Benatti said, but it does have a single-digit royalty position in its lead compound, an ion channel blocker called Safinamide, which is in separate Phase II trials for epilepsy and Parkinson’s disease. Safinamide, which Pharmacia identified through classical chemical screening methods, is both a calcium and a sodium channel blocker, raising hopes that it could act as a broad-spectrum neuroprotectant and a disease-modifying agent in Parkinson’s. It also has potential as a symptomatic treatment of Parkinson’s as it inhibits the activity of monoamine oxidase B, an enzyme involved in breaking down dopamine, levels of which are depleted in patients with the condition.

Newron’s second compound, NW-1029, is in development for neuropathic pain and is due to enter a Phase I trial in Austria next month. “The molecule is a very interesting compound because it once again has ion channel activities, like the Safinamide compound,” Benatti said. It blocks a sodium channel subtype that is closely linked to the pain sensation, he said. “This is the only drug so far described with preferential activity on this type of channel.”

Pfizer Inc., of New York, currently markets the gold-standard treatment for that indication, Neurontin (gabapentin). Newron said that NW-1029 may have superior efficacy, with fewer side effects. “The drug is 40 times more potent that gabapentin in animal models,” Benatti said.

Newron has an additional neuroprotection program about to undergo pharmacological proof-of-concept studies, Benatti said. The company is engaged in a CNS drug discovery collaboration with Gerenzano-based BioSearch Italia SpA, which is screening its proprietary collection of microbial extracts against targets identified by Newron. The company also possesses a compound library comprising several hundred molecules with ion channel activities. It is about to extend that asset through a collaboration with an undisclosed combinatorial chemistry firm.