Nitec Pharma secures new investment

Published: 11-Oct-2004

From venture capital firms Atlas Venture and Global Life Science Ventures (GLSV)


Nitec Pharma, of Basel in Switzerland, has secured a US$10m investment from leading venture capital firms Atlas Venture and Global Life Science Ventures (GLSV).

Nitec Pharma was recently established as a spin-out of Merck KGaA, of Darmstadt in Germany. The company focuses on the development of anti-inflammatory drugs with an improved benefit-risk profile for patients suffering from chronic inflammatory diseases. The investment will be used to progress Phase III clinical trials for the company's late stage candidate, a new formulation of a well established therapeutic principle that has been developed in collaboration with Skye Pharma.

SkyePharma, which developed the proprietary Geomatrix oral delivery technology used in the formu-lation, will receive royalty payments on any potential sales through Nitec Pharma's licensing agreements. Merck KGaA will have the marketing rights of the product in Germany and Austria.

'Nitec's approach will result in easier-to-use and more effective products in a field of high medical need,' said Dr Peter Reinisch, of GLSV. 'We are pleased to provide support to a newly formed company in Switzerland with a product in the advanced stages of clinical testing.'

  

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