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CoDa Series B brings in $19.2 M for Venous Leg Ulcer Phase II
04 / 05 / 2011
BIOWORLD TODAY
San Diego- based CoDa Therapeutics Inc. Raised $19.2 million in a series B financing, allowing biotech to push forward with a large Phase II multicentre venous leg ulcer trial with Nexagon, its lead produce for chronic wound patients. CEO Bradord Duft told Bioworld Today the sum was just the first tranche of the Series B, adding that CoDa was looking to raise another $10 million to $15 million in the Series B by June 30. The Series B was led to Domain Associates with current investors GBS Venture Partners and BioPacificVentures also participating in the first round. Duft said the Series B is the first financing for CoDa since September 2008. To date, the company has raised a total of $42 million in two financings. He said that the Series B funds are budgeted to last through 2012, which would bring lead chronic wound product Nexagon up to Phase III. Duft also said the company intends to use some of the proceeds to continue preclinical development of other product candidates. Duft said there is an 18- month timeline for the 300-patient Phase IIb venous leg ulcer trial which is being initiated at more than 30 site sin the U.S., New Zealand and Australia. He added that CoDa, which has five employees in the U.S. and 10 in New Zealand, is working on several partnering opportunities for Naxagon. He said there is no approved therapeutic in the U.S. for chronic wounds such as venous leg ulcers or diabetic foot ulcers. In May 2010 CoDa announced positive results from its Phase II NOVEL study of Nexagon in 98 patients with venous leg ulcers. Nexagon achieved the endpoints of safety reduction in wound size and complete healing after four weeks of the randomized, vehicle- controlled, double- blind study. Nexagon is applied topically to stop overproduction of a protein known as connexin43. The company reported that in the drug arm, almost one- third of patients were completely healed after four weeks following just three applications of Nexagon compared to only 6 per cent complete healing in the placebo arm (p<0.02). The traditional wound- healing approach involves upregulating growth factors such as VEGF or PDGF- B. CoDa’s platform technology down- regulates connexins, protein segments involved in intracellular communication. Nexagon is a small anti-connexin43 oligonucleotide that down-regulates the proteins that form gap junctions, reducing the injured cell’s ability to send out death signals. The effect is transient, lasting only six to eight hours, after which the body’s natural healing processes kick in. The company said that preclinical studies of Nexagon have shown the ability to stop lesion spread, reduce inflammation by 80 per cent, block swelling, decrease scarring by 50 per cent and double wound closure rates. ( See Bioworld Today, Feb 22, 2007).(Volume 22, No. 75 (page 1)).
By Tom Wall, Staff writer