NeuroPhage Pharmaceuticals Closes $12.4M Series B Round

CAMBRIDGE, Mass., March 1, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- NeuroPhage Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NeuroPhage), a privately held biotechnology company developing a protein disaggregation platform for treatment of neurodegenerative diseases, announced today that it has secured $12.4 million in Series B financing, which will be mostly directed to the IND-enabling activities in preparation of a Phase 1 clinical trial for NPT001, NeuroPhage's lead product candidate for the treatment of Alzheimer's disease, and include further work to expand the platform.  

The round was led by MerieuxDeveloppement and also included Shire LLC as a new investor. Existing investors reiterated their strong support in this Series B round, bringing the total amount of equity capital raised by NeuroPhage to $19.6 million since its inception in 2007.

In conjunction with the financing, Dr. Valerie Calenda, partner at MerieuxDeveloppement, will join NeuroPhage's Board of Directors and Dr. Michael Heartlein, Vice President, Research at Shire Human Genetic Therapies, will be a Board observer.

About NeuroPhage

NeuroPhage is a biotechnology company focusing on a unique disease-modifying phage approach for treating protein aggregation diseases.  NeuroPhage was founded in 2007 by a Cambridge-based team, together with Professor Beka Solomon, Chair for Biotechnology of Neurodegenerative Diseases at Tel Aviv University. More information about the company can be found at: www.neurophage.com

About MerieuxDeveloppement

MerieuxDeveloppement is the healthcare investment company of InstitutMerieux, a French industrial holding company dedicated to biology, which currently employs more than 10,000 people worldwide. InstitutMerieux has majority ownership of bioMerieux (NYSE Euronext, BIM), Silliker, Transgene (NYSE Euronext, TNG) and ABL Inc. MerieuxDeveloppement intends to invest up to 70 million euros as minority shareholder from 2010 to 2013 in the field of healthcare on a global basis, working alongside entrepreneurs and innovative companies whose products and services can bring genuine advances to the health of patients and consumers worldwide. More information can be found at: www.merieux-developpement.com.

About Shire

Shire's strategic goal is to become the leading specialty biopharmaceutical company that focuses on meeting the needs of the specialist physician. Shire focuses its business on attention deficit and hyperactivity disorder, human genetic therapies and gastrointestinal diseases as well as opportunities in other specialty therapeutic areas to the extent they arise through acquisitions. Shire's in-licensing, merger and acquisition efforts are focused on products in specialist markets with strong intellectual property protection and global rights. Shire believes that a carefully selected and balanced portfolio of products with strategically aligned and relatively small-scale sales forces will deliver strong results. More information can be found at: www.shire.com

SOURCE NeuroPhage Pharmaceuticals, Inc.