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BioRelix Announces $25.75 Million Series A Financing to Fund Development of Antibiotic Product Pipeline New Haven, Conn.-- BioRelix, Inc., a biopharmaceutical company focused on the development of novel anti-infective agents, announced today the completion of a $25.75 million Series A financing. The financing was led by CHL Medical Partners with participation by new investors New Leaf Venture Partners and Aisling Capital and existing investors Novartis Venture Fund, Elm Street Ventures and Alexandria Real Estate Equities. BioRelix expects to use the funds to build a portfolio of anti-infective product candidates based on novel patented bacterial RNA targets, termed RiboSwitches(TM), which were identified by the laboratory of BioRelix' co-founder, Ronald Breaker, Ph.D., Howard Hughes Investigator and Henry Ford II Professor at Yale University. "We are extremely pleased to have a prestigious group of investors who support the company's strategy and approach to building a pipeline of anti-bacterial products," stated Ronald W. Lennox, D. Phil., a partner with CHL Medical Partners and interim CEO. "We anticipate that the Series A financing will allow us to file an IND with at least one RiboSwitch class and advance other compounds targeting different RiboSwitch classes through late stage pre-clinical development. In the near term, we expect to have a CEO in place by early fall of this year." "BioRelix' proprietary technology platform addresses the widespread and growing prevalence of resistant bacterial strains that are presenting in both the hospital and community settings. RiboSwitches constitute the first new major class of targets for anti-infective drug discovery in decades and in fact seem to underlie the activity of several compounds with known antibacterial activity," said Dr. Breaker. "Our recent research has also demonstrated that RiboSwitches may have broad-spectrum activity against Gram-positive and Gram-negative bacteria. We are continuing to explore the mechanism of action of this class of targets, including the potential to reduce toxicity, as well as possible applications in anti-fungal therapy." In addition to Dr. Breaker, BioRelix' co-founders are: Ken Blount, Ph.D., Director of Research at BioRelix and Associate Research Scientist, Yale University; A. Donny Strosberg, Dr. Sci., and Steven Delco, Vice President of Health Care and Healthcare Portfolio Manager, Weiss, Peck and Greer. |