Biotechnology company Autifony Therapeutics has closed a £10 million financing, securing a £5 million investment each from Imperial Innovations and SV Life Sciences.
Biotechnology company Autifony Therapeutics has closed a £10 million financing, securing a £5 million investment each from Imperial Innovations and SV Life Sciences.
Autifony, a spin-out from GlaxoSmithKline, will use the funding to accelerate preclinical development of medicine that could possibly treat hearing disorders, including noise-induced hearing loss and tinnitus. The company aims to begin human trials in early 2013.
Following the funding round, technology commercialisation and investment company Imperial and SV Life Sciences will each have a 33.6 per cent stake in Autifony, while GlaxoSmithKline will own 13.2 per cent.
The business was founded by Charles Large, chief scientific officer, previously director of molecular and cellular biology at GlaxoSmithKline, and Giuseppe Alvaro, head of preclinical drug discovery, previously chemistry leader within GlaxoSmithKline’s Neuroscience division.
Autifony researchers will work with Professor David McAlpine and Jennifer Linden, experts in auditory neuroscience at University College London’s Ear Institute. The university is a founding shareholder in Autifony.
Imperial Innovations’ chief executive Susan Searle comments, ‘We have worked closely with Autifony, SV Life Sciences and GSK to successfully transfer the great potential of these pre-clinical assets to Autifony.
‘This is a creative approach to building new companies, leveraging established pharmaceutical assets together with the world class scientific expertise that exists at the UCL Ear Institute.’
Large, Autifony’s co-founder, adds, ‘There are currently no pharmacological treatments available for hearing loss or tinnitus despite the increasingly large number of patients, both old and young, that suffer from these conditions.
‘Autifony represents an important opportunity to bring together our drug discovery experience with the expertise of academic groups in this field, in particular the Ear Institute. Autifony’s goal will be to find effective new medicines that can reduce the burden of suffering for this poorly served patient group.’
