BioWorld Today Correspondent

Telormedix SA, a Swiss firm commercializing science that originated in San Diego, closed a CHF21 million (US$19.1 million) Series A round.

The Bioggio-based firm also tapped into some San Diego money, in the shape of Proquest Investments, which joined lead investor Aravis Venture, of Basel, Switzerland, and other investors: BSI SA, of Lugano, Switzerland; Nextech Venture, of Zurich, Switzerland; and Generali Insurance Group, of Trieste, Italy.

Telormedix reunites part of the team behind Salmedix Inc., the San Diego firm which Frazer, Pa.-based Cephalon, Inc. acquired in 2005, in a cash deal worth up to US$200 million.

Two of its founders, CEO Lorenzo Leoni and Dennis Carson, director of the Moores Cancer Center at the University of California, San Diego, also were founders of the Californian company. The Swiss firm's other founders are immunologist and Nobel laureate Rolf Zinkernagel, who is a former colleague of Carson, and its chief operating officer, Roberto Maj.

Its business model also carries echoes of the Salmedix game plan, which was based on a combination of in-licensing and internally developed drug candidates. "It's been a success story. We're trying to repeat that essentially with some of the same people," Leoni told BioWorld Today.

The active ingredient of Telormedix's lead product, TMX-101, is a known molecular entity, which the company is reprofiling for the treatment of superficial bladder cancer. It is scheduled to enter a Phase I/II trial next year, having previously shown signs of clinical activity in other indications. The company has a "strong" scientific rationale for taking it into bladder cancer," Leoni said.

Behind that is a series of preclinical modulators of the innate immune system discovered in Carson's lab. These target Toll-like receptors (TLRs) and have potential in oncology, in autoimmune diseases and as vaccine adjuvants. "On their own, they would have made financing a lot more difficult," Leoni said. "We're very much aware of the risks in entering this field."

TLR modulators have been a qualified success to date, as drug developers struggle with their safety. "This area is still hot, but it's extremely complicated," Leoni said. "Maybe the early companies went into this area without a full understanding of its complexity."

The company has sufficient financing to undertake early development of TMX-101 and to complete pre-investigational new drug studies on its internal pipeline. Its location, near Lugano, the largest city in the Italian-speaking region of Switzerland, is not an internationally recognized biotechnology hub.

However, it is home to a cluster of small and medium-sized pharmaceutical firms, most of which are risk-averse, regionally focused and family-owned. Drug development expertise is therefore readily available, as well as access to Swiss and Italian capital.