KalGene Pharmaceuticals secures Series A financing

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By Ted Liu

KalGene Pharmaceuticals Inc., a biotech company developing precision medicine therapeutics for effective treatment of Alzheimer’s disease, has closed a Series A round of financing led by Lumira Capital with participation from Anges Québec, Anges Québec Capital, Accel-Rx Health Sciences Accelerator and private investors.

KalGene Pharmaceuticals raised $[mepr-active rule=”374″ ifallowed=”hide”]Subscriber ONLY content: read our research and get insight on this and other deals. We offer monthly or yearly recurring or one-time trial subscriptions. Subscribe today and see what you have been missing! [/mepr-active][mepr-active rule=”374″]4.17 million in Series A funding rom 29 investors from BC, Ontario and Quebec. Lumira invested $1.85 million.[/mepr-active] Norton Rose Fulbright Canada LLP acts as legal counsel to KalGene Pharmaceuticals.

Proceeds from these combined funding sources will support the development of KalGene’s lead Alzheimer’s therapeutic candidate.

BC/Ontario/Quebec based KalGene Pharmaceuticals is led by Dr. T. Nathan Yoganathan, President and Chief Scientific Officer, and Dr. John W. Gillard, VP of Product Development.

In 2015, KalGen raised $1.5 million from Brain Canada, CQDM, and the Ontario Brain Institute (OBI).

“We’ve followed the development of this program for many years and have been working directly with the team for the last year on this opportunity. During the past year, one of Lumira’s advisors, Dr. John Gillard, joined the company as Vice President Drug Development to advance the lead product to the clinic,” said Daniel Hetu, Managing Director at Lumira Capital.

“The company has made terrific progress as a result of its work with a number of key collaboration partners. These partners include; the National Research Council of Canada, McGill University, where a number of the lead clinicians and researchers are located, and a number of agencies and foundations that continue to provide non-dilutive capital and innovation support including the Weston Brain Institute, Consortium Québécois sur la découverte du médicament (CQDM), Brain Canada and Ontario Brain Institute,” noted Jacki Jenuth, Partner at Lumira Capital.

“Anges Québec members and Anges Québec Capital were impressed by the quality of the science behind KalGene and their approach to Alzheimer’s treatments. We know that important challenges lie ahead in this race to tackle Alzheimer’s disease, but we are confident that the KalGene team has what it takes to succeed”, said François Gilbert, CEO of Anges Québec and Anges Québec Capital.

“One of the biggest obstacles to treating Alzheimer’s and other neurodegenerative diseases is delivering therapeutics past the blood-brain barrier,” said Natalie Dakers, President and CEO of Accel-Rx. “We are pleased to be part of the team enabling KalGene to advance the development of its innovative solution to this problem, buoying hopes for an effective new treatment for this devastating disease.”

“We are very pleased to close on this financing which will allow us to complete our preclinical studies and move our program into the clinic and eventually have an impact on patients’ lives.” said Dr. T. Nathan Yoganathan, President and Chief Scientific Officer of KalGene.

photo credit: KalGene Pharmaceuticals