By Frances Bishopp

Staff Writer

Receptor Technologies Inc. has received a $13.5 million funding package from a group of Danish investors and a government fund.

The money, John Barberich, vice president of finance at Receptor, told BioWorld Today, will be used to found a new subsidiary in Glostrup, Denmark, to build staff at both Receptor's Vermont and Danish locations and to support development of proprietary screening methodologies and discovery of pharmaceutical compounds.

Receptor Technologies is a development stage company which specializes in the functional characterization of genes that encode drug targets. The company has developed a platform of breakthrough proprietary technologies that enable the high throughput assay of receptor function.

Founded in 1993, Receptor has corporate offices in Winooski, Vt., and laboratories in both Winooski and Glostrup, Denmark.

Of the $13.5 million, $6 million in equity capital is being provided by Dansk Kapitalanlaeg Aktieselskab, a Danish venture capital firm, BankInvest, a mutual fund, LD Pensions, an institutional investor and Muncipal Employee Life Insurance Co., all of Copenhagen.

"We sold preferred shares from the parent company to this group of Danish investors," Barberich said. "Each of the investors put in approximately $1.5 million each."

In addition, Receptor has received a commitment of $7.5 million in debt financing from the Danish Business Development Finance Agency, of Copenhagen. The Danish Business Development Finance Agency supports Danish companies by financing research and development, and internationalization and skills development.

"We received excellent terms from this agency at this stage of our company." Barberich said, "The agency's program is designed to encourage expansion of high tech in the Copenhagen area or Denmark in general. There will be no payments for three years and then we pay a percentage of revenue."

Barberich said the expansion of the new Danish facility will be devoted to chemistry and the Vermont expansion will be devoted to biology. Prior to this new financing, Receptor, a privately held company, has been financed entirely with revenues from corporate collaborations and screening contracts, Barberich said, with Novo Nordisk, of Denmark, Allergan, of San Diego, and Proctor and Gamble Co., of Cincinnati. *