Medgenics ($MDGN) has taken another step in the development of its inventive therapeutic protein-delivery pump, securing $9.5 million in private placement to further clinical trials for the Biopump system.
The company's tech is a tissue-based platform, using a patient's own skin biopsy to produce and deliver therapeutic proteins. Medgenics has three long-acting protein therapies in the pipeline for the Biopump platform, designed to treat anemia, hepatitis D and hemophilia.
"The capital we raised will be applied towards funding key studies in anemia and hepatitis, as well as advancing our technologies along the path towards commercialization," CEO Andrew Pearlman said in a statement. The Israeli company will also spend some of that $9.5 million on further R&D.
Medgenics isn't focused solely on its pipeline applications for Biopump. The company is looking to out-license the tech and says it could be used to treat multiple sclerosis, arthritis and diabetes, among other ailments. Medgenics hopes to use the Biopump delivery platform to establish itself in the global therapeutic protein market, which it predicts will balloon into the billions of dollars by 2013.
- read the company's release