GliaPharm, an EPFL Spinoff announces the successful completion of a CHF 2 million financing supported by the US-based Gliaven LLC and private investors. GliaPharm is developing treatments for neurological and psychiatric disorders and is initially focusing on an orphan neurological disease caused by a deficiency in brain metabolism that affects more than 100’000 children around the world.
GliaPharm specialises in the research and development of novel therapies to treat and prevent neurological diseases by targeting glial cells, the 'support cells' of neurons, to sustain and enhance brain metabolism in pathological conditions. This new approach opens the door to broader indications linked to brain metabolism deficiencies, such as dementia or Alzheimer’s disease. The company has developed a proprietary technology platform, GliaX, to identify drugs that target glial cells’ activity and brain energy metabolism.
An orphan neurological disease as a proof of concept
The rare genetic metabolic disorder targeted first is intricately linked to brain metabolism deficiency and children develop symptoms as early as the age of one month. “The targeted disease is characterised by frequent epileptic seizures, neuromuscular and cognitive deficiencies, currently lacking efficient treatment”, says Sylvain Lengacher, co-CEO and co-founder. "This indication is the principal target in this first step, as a proof of concept in neurological diseases linked to hypometabolism and a model for biomarker analyses.
The spinoff from EPFL based at Campus Biotech in Geneva has recently completed a CHF 1,5 million financing supported by Gliaven LLC, a US-based investor. This comes in addition to a CHF 500’000 financing by private angel investors, bringing the total amount raised to date to CHF 2 million. GliaPharm will use the funds to advance its drug development program and generate key preclinical data for the next anticipated round of financing.
GliaPharm is grounded on strong academic leadership in the field of brain metabolism and glial cells biology and aims at clinically applying fundamental discoveries from three decades of academic research. “Thanks to the fact that the Campus Biotech and ist high-tech facilities remained open during the COVID-19 crisis, we were able to keep our research on track, onboard an investor and hire two additional collaborators”, adds Ambroise Magistretti, Co-CEO and co-founder.
(Press release / RAN)
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