MONTREAL, Nov. 20, 2014 /CNW/ - OsteoQC a company devoted to developing therapies for the treatment of bone-related diseases today announced the closing of a seed financing round. Lumira Capital Investment Management via its Merck Lumira Biosciences Fund led the financing, which represents part of Lumira's ongoing strategy to build early stage highly innovative health care technology companies with significant growth potential in Quebec.
OsteoQC is a newly formed company, based in Montreal that will develop new drug candidates for the treatment of bone-related diseases. Through its collaboration with OsteoGeneX, based in Overland Park, KS, OsteoQC has acquired a rich intellectual property portfolio supporting proprietary product candidates for promoting bone growth. The company will be led by Dr. Debra Ellies, a world expert in the area of bone formation "This financing round enables us to rapidly advance our lead small molecule product candidate for bone formation", said Dr. Ellies. "Quebec has a rich ecosystem of medicinal chemistry and highly qualified pharmaceutical scientists and we will look forward to building this company in such a rich environment."
"The foundational work already accomplished by OsteoGeneX and Dr. Ellies provides a great launching pad to establish OsteoQC in Montreal" commented Dr. Daniel Hetu, Managing Director of Lumira Capital and Vice-Chair of OsteoQC.
Dr. Brian Underdown, Managing Director of Lumira Capital and Chairman of OsteoQC said "Lumira's intention is to build OsteoQC as a leading company devoted to unmet needs in bone-related diseases".
About Lumira Capital
Lumira Capital is a leading North American healthcare and life sciences
venture capital firm. Currently managing over $250 million, Lumira
Capital is an active investor that works closely with entrepreneurs to
develop transformative therapeutics and medical technology innovations.
Previous Lumira Capital investments include Thrasos Therapeutics,
enGene Inc., Pharmasset (acquired by Gilead Sciences), Ception
Therapeutics (acquired by Cephalon), Resonant Medical (acquired by
Elekta), Morphotek (acquired by Eisai), and Corus Pharma (acquired by
Gilead Sciences), as well as public companies such as MAKO Surgical
(acquired by Stryker Corp.), DepoMed, and Ista Pharmaceuticals. Lumira
Capital has partners in Toronto, Montréal and Boston.
About OsteoGeneX
OsteoGeneX is a private, Kansas-based company focused on developing
therapies to promote bone healing. In additional to its collaboration
with OsteoQC, OsteoGeneX will continue its work to develop implantable
devices to promote fracture healing.
SOURCE: Lumira Capital
Lumira Capital
Daniel Hetu
Managing Director, Lumira Capital
1.514.844-6927
OsteoGeneX
Debra Ellies
President and CEO
1.913.660.0637
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