Drug Discovery Company to Focus on G-Protein Coupled Receptors
BERWYN, Penn., March 5 /PRNewswire/ -- Trevena, Inc., a drug discovery company focused on developing pharmaceutical products targeting G-protein coupled receptors (GPCRs), today announced the closing of a $24 million Series A financing. Alta Partners and Healthcare Ventures led the round as part of an investor syndicate that included New Enterprise Associates and Polaris Venture Partners. The company will use the funds to progress its drug discovery portfolio.
"We are very pleased to have attracted an outstanding group of investors, who share our vision and strategy on building a premier drug discovery organization," said Maxine Gowen, Ph.D., President and Chief Executive Officer. "Pharmaceutical products that target GPCRs represent over 40% of marketed drugs today and these targets provide an attractive starting point for new pharmaceutical agents. Trevena's mission will be to utilize a state of the art approach to discover and develop novel GPCR-targeted medicines for patients."
Dr. Gowen was most recently the Senior Vice President of GlaxoSmithKline's Center of Excellence for External Drug Discovery, where she was responsible for delivering compounds with therapeutic proof of concept through partnerships with biotechnology companies. "We are thrilled to have Maxine's leadership and believe Trevena is uniquely positioned to develop new GPCR-based drugs, across multiple therapeutic areas, which could be safe and more effective than current pharmaceuticals," commented Farah Champsi, Managing Partner at Alta Partners.
Trevena has recruited Michael Lark, Ph.D. as Head of Research and Mark Strobeck, Ph.D. as Chief Business Officer. Michael was previously Vice President of Biology Discovery, at Centocor. Mark was formerly Vice President of Business Development for Drug Discovery at GlaxoSmithKline.
Trevena's drug discovery platform, licensed from Duke University
M
'/>"/>
| SOURCE Trevena, Inc. Copyright©2008 PR Newswire. All rights reserved |