Washington Editor

Syndexa Pharmaceuticals Corp.'s bank account got a $15 million boost in a Series B financing round, which will allow the firm to advance its metabolic disease product platform.

The round was led by new investor Yalcin Ayasli, an entrepreneur and founder of Chelmsford, Mass.-based Hittite Microwave Corp.

Cambridge, Mass.-based Syndexa, which is focused on developing small-molecule drugs to treat obesity-induced diseases, such as Type II diabetes and atherosclerosis, has raised $19 million of equity capital to date, said CEO Teo Uysal.

"We are extremely excited about the Series B funding, which will allow us to move our programs toward the goal of helping patients," he told BioWorld Today.

"Attracting additional capital at an increased valuation is a testament to the robust product potential of our innovative drug discovery approach and the strength of our team," he added.

The new funds will carry the firm through 2009 and possibly beyond, he said.

The company's discovery platform targets the endoplasmic reticulum biology and the c-jun n-terminal kinase (JNK), which Uysal called the "interface of inflammation and metabolism."

Syndexa, which became operational in early 2007, licensed its technologies from Harvard University, the University of California, San Diego and the Burnham Institute of Biomedical Research, a La Jolla, Calif.-based nonprofit, Uysal noted.

While several other firms are targeting JNK in their product pipelines - mainly focusing on the ATP competitive inhibitors - Syndexa is using a different approach.

"We will be discovering what we call allosteric inhibitors of the kinase by targeting a site different than the ATP binding domain," Uysal said. He called Syndexa's program modulating endoplasmic reticulum biology "a completely new paradigm" not currently being pursued by other firms.

Syndexa's intellectual property estate includes 17 patents at various stages.

In other financing news:

• Allos Therapeutics Inc., of Westminster, Colo., said it closed its recently announced public offering of 12.4 million shares of newly issued common stock at a public offering price of $5.64 per share. The number of shares issued included 1.6 million shares purchased by the underwriters pursuant to their exercise in full of their overallotment option. Allos received net proceeds from the offering of approximately $65.2 million, after deducting underwriting commissions and estimated offering expenses. (See BioWorld Today, May 27, 2008.)

• InNexus Biotechnology Inc., of Vancouver, British Columbia, said due to interest in its brokered private placement with Dundee Securities Corp., its earlier announced offering has been raised to 20 million units with gross proceeds of up to $5 million. The firm previously reported gross proceeds of about $4.04 million, at a purchase price of 25 cents per unit. The company also has secured an equity line of credit for up to $7.5 million, which it said will provide the firm greater long-term fiscal stability.