PR Newswire
HUNTSVILLE, Ala., June 1, 2011 /PRNewswire/ — Serina Therapeutics, Inc. President and CEO Randall Moreadith, MD, PhD, reported today that Serina has closed on a $9.5 million financing round to advance its lead oncology candidate SER-203 into a Phase I study in humans in early 2012.
"We are pleased to report to our existing and new shareholders the closing of the financing round that was launched in late 2010. This is a very significant milestone for Serina Therapeutics, and will allow us to advance our lead oncology candidate into Phase Ia and continue to build a robust pipeline of novel polymer therapeutics for unmet medical needs," stated Dr. Moreadith.
"Serina’s polymer technology has enormous potential to advance novel polymer drugs, not just for oncology but for many diseases including metabolic disorders, pain and inflammation. This capital gives us sufficient resources to advance our first molecule into the clinic, and we wish to express our sincere appreciation to our shareholders."
Serina Therapeutics, Inc. is a private pharmaceutical company located at the HudsonAlpha Institute for Biotechnology in Huntsville, Ala., and is the only company in the world to develop polyoxazoline (POZ) polymers for pharmaceutical applications. POZ polymers are multifunctional polymers that can be coupled to known drugs, and in doing so these novel therapeutics have dramatically altered pharmacokinetics.
Molecules that normally have short duration times in the body can be converted to molecules with prolonged activity – sometimes as long as weeks. This prolonged half-life in the body may improve the safety and efficacy of the molecule. In addition, Serina has developed technology that allows the resulting polymer drug to be specifically targeted to receptors on the surface of cancer cells, and this approach may be useful for applications outside oncology. For more information please visit www.serinatherapeutics.com.