Sources inform ''Globes'' that transdermal drug delivery company Transpharma Medical Ltd. has raised $18 million. The company confirmed the report and the amount raised.
Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd. (Nasdaq: TEVA; TASE: TEVA) and Argonaut Private Equity led the round, joined by Israeli venture capital funds Biomedical Investments Ltd, Evergreen Venture Partners, Pitango Venture Capital, Vitalife Life Sciences Venture, T2C2 of Canada and TIF Ventures Pte Ltd. of Singapore. In addition, Argonaut Private Equity managing director Jason Martin will join Transpharma’s board.
Teva and Transpharma are collaborating, under which Teva is partly financing one of Transpharma’s products. Payments are made on the basis of milestones and future royalties. Several months ago, it was reported that Transpharma met the first milestone and received its first payment from Teva.
Transpharma was founded in 2000 by serial entrepreneur Dr. Yossi Gross and Meir Warshavsky, formerly the CEO of Ilan Medical Technologies (Israel) Ltd., which Gross co-founded with Zohar Avrahami, who also co-founded MTRE Advanced Technologies Ltd. and Curelight Ltd.
Transpharma raised $6.5 million from Biomedical Investments, Pitango and Vitalife shortly after it was founded. The company raised $9 million in its second financing round in 2003. T2C2, TIF Ventures and Evergreen participated in that round.
Transpharma is developing a new method for transdermal drug delivery, called the Viaderm, using a device the size of a pen that delivers an electrical current, which opens micro-channels in the skin. The electrical pulse is painless, and the channels stay open for 24 hours enabling the delivery of drugs from a patch placed on the area immediately after the pulse is administered.
The ViaDerm comprises both the microelectrode array and the patch, which contains the personalized dosage of the drug to be delivered through the skin. Transpharma is collaborating with Teva to develop five Teva molecules for use with Transpharma’s ViaDerm delivery system.
Transpharma is also independently developing a device for the delivery of the human PTH 1-34 hormone for preventing osteoporosis, which it believes will be launched in 2010.
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes.co.il - on July 24, 2006
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