Xention raises £8 million to advance atrial fibrillation work
This article was originally published in Scrip
Xention, a Cambridge,UK-based biopharmaceutical company has raised £8 million in series D financing round to further its work in ion channel targets and atrial fibrillation in particular.
The financing was led by new investor Seroba-Kernel Life Sciences and included existing investors Forbion Capital, Crédit Agricole Private Equity, MVM and BTG International.
Xention will use the funding to advance its programmes in atrial fibrillation to clinical proof of concept. Its lead compound, XEN-D0101, a modulator of the voltage-gated potassium channel Kv1.5, is in Phase I development.
Seroba-Kernel's Graham Fagg, who is to join Xention's board of directors, said he was excited by the commercial opportunities afforded by Xention. He added: "In particular we recognise Xention's expertise in the discovery and development of drugs for AF ".
To date the company has raised £31 million, including an £8 million series C round in 2008. It also has products in development to treat overactive bladder and autoimmune diseases. XEN-D0501 is an antagonist of the TRPV1 vanilloid receptor and recently completed single ascending dose and multiple ascending dose Phase I studies in overactive bladder patients. The company is also developing inhibitors of Kv1.3 channel expressed in effector memory T-cells for the treatment of T-cell mediated autoimmune diseases, such as rheumatoid arthritis, psoriasis, multiple sclerosis and inflammatory bowel disease.
In March last year, Xention entered into a drug discovery agreement with Ono Pharmaceutical to develop ion channel-modulating drugs. Xention is using its ion channel drug discovery platform to identify, design and synthesise small molecules against ion channels selected by Ono (scripintelligence.com, 19 March 2009).