Symphony Pharmaceuticals Inc., a private company developing drugsto regulate ion channels, said Tuesday that it completed a $4.5 millionprivate placement.Institutions investing in the Malvern, Pa., company were the same onesthat provided $3 million to Symphony in March 1993. The secondround of financing, led by Fostin Capital, also included S.R. One Ltd.,Euclid Partners L.P., Gateway Associates L.P. and Grotech Capital."We plan to continue the development of some initial compounds andexpand efforts to take amino cyclopropane carboxylic acid (ACPC)along the clinical development path," Jim Koch, Symphony's chieffinancial officer, told BioWorld. "That will allow us to step up ourcorporate partnering efforts, both in development as well as potentialresearch collaborations."ACPC, a partial agonist on the glycine site on the N-methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA) receptor, is in Phase I trials. Symphony obtained anexclusive worldwide license to ACPC from the National Institutes ofHealth, Koch said. It is being developed for neuroprotection and,separately, Koch said, for opiate tolerance. In animal models it reducedor reversed tolerance build-up to morphine, he said.Other classes of compounds being developed to modulate the flow ofions through ion channels in the brain, particularly through the NMDAreceptor, mostly are in the research or late research stages. _ JimShrine

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