Israeli biotechnology start-up Chiasma has completed a $2 million seed round. InnoMed, the Jerusalem Global Partners life sciences fund, made the investment.
Jerusalem Global Ventures general partner and InnoMed fund manager Dr. Dalia Megiddo told “Globes” that a year ago, the fund had given Chiasma's founder a small sum to enable him to demonstrate that the venture was viable. After this was successfully accomplished, the fund decided to invest. Chiasma is currently testing the technology on various proteins and vaccines.
Chiasma develops solutions for delivering protein-based drugs in a non-invasive manner. The company technology is designed to enable drugs to reach the bloodstream without an injection. Proteins taken orally usually dissolve while still in the intestine, without entering the bloodstream. The need for injections is becoming more acute, because most new drugs in use or being developed are protein-based.
Megiddo said Chiasma was exploiting a natural process, in which whole proteins pass through the digestive system the spread of infectious intestinal diseases. From the DNA of these germs, which are able to pass proteins through the digestive system, the company produces peptides that attach themselves to the proteins, and bring them to the intestine.
CEO Guy Yachin and CTO Prof. Shmuel Ben-Sasson (Hebrew University of Jerusalem) founded Chiasma in 2002, through the Yissum Research Development Company of the Hebrew University. Netanya-based Chiasma has six employees.
Yachin, a former CEO of the Naiot Technological Center, later became a house entrepreneur at Jerusalem Global. Ben-Sasson is a visiting professor at the Harvard Medical School, and the inventor of Keryx Biopharmaceuticals’ (Nasdaq: KERX; LSE: KRX) KinAce drug discovery platform.
Published by Globes [online] - www.globes.co.il - on March 25, 2003