BioWorld International Correspondent

PARIS - Synt:em completed a new funding round in which it raised EUR22 million (US$20.7 million) from a group of European investors led by the Immunology Fund of Lombard Odier & Cie, of Zurich, Switzerland, and the Danish venture capital fund BankInvest, of Copenhagen.

Other new investors include Rendex, of Antwerp, Belgium; Private Equity Holding, managed by Zurich-based Vontobel Group; Medicis, of Munich, Germany; and Mercure Biotech, of Paris.

Three existing shareholders - Apax Partners & Cie and Banexi Ventures, both of Paris, and Stockholm, Sweden-based Healthcap - also participated in this latest funding. Apax remains the lead investor with a 15 percent stake, while Banexi, Lombard Odier and BankInvest each have holdings of 13 percent to 15 percent.

CEO Michel Kaczorek told BioWorld International that, not counting seed funding of FFr4.6 million (US$725,000), with which he created Synt:em in 1996, this is the company's third funding round. It raised FFr20 million (US$3.1 million) in December 1997 and FFr37 million in July 1999.

Based in Nîmes, in southern France, Synt:em is in the business of identifying and developing new drugs for the treatment of diseases of the central nervous system, including age-related degenerative diseases such as Alzheimer's and Parkinson's. It has used its computer tools to develop technologies such as Acti:map, a computational active compound development and optimization engine, and Pep:trans, an intracellular delivery system for introducing drugs into the brain in a way that penetrates the blood-brain barrier and improves drug uptake and efficacy.

The company now is focusing on the application of that technology. Kaczorek explained that this latest injection of funds would be used to "accompany Synt:em's transition from a technology platform into a drug discovery company discovering and developing its own products." He added that this transition also would have the effect of freeing its technology platform for the execution of fee-for-service contracts for third parties in fields other than CNS.

Kaczorek maintained that the success of the latest funding round, which was heavily oversubscribed, demonstrated the market's confidence in Synt:em's decision to focus on CNS diseases and in the know-how it had developed in this field. The company's lead compound, for the treatment of acute pain, is due to enter clinical trials in 2002, while there are two more in the pipeline that will enter the clinic in six- to 12-month intervals after that, said Kaczorek.