US-based biotech company Naurex has raised $25m from existing shareholders that will be used to accelerate trials for its depression drugs GLYX-13 and NRX-1074.
Naurex did not disclose the identity of the investors but its existing backers include Baxter Ventures, The corporate venturing arm of healthcare company Baxter International, Takeda Pharmaceuticals corporate venturing unit Takeda Ventures, drugs developer Lundbeck and Nasdaq-listed drugs company Shire.
Naurex was founded in 2009 to develop therapies for depression psychiatry and neurology disorders that attack the central nervous system. Its research is based on the work of founder Joseph Moskal and colleagues now at the Falk Center for Molecular Therapeutics at Northwestern University.
Naurex has now raised a total of $82.1m in funding, including a $38m B round in December 2012 that featured Baxter, Lundbeck, Shire, Latterell Venture Partners, Genesys Capital, Savitr Capital, Adams Street Partners, PathoCapital and Druid BioVentures, and an $18m series A round in May 2011.
News of the latest funding was released alongside positive Phase 2b results for GLYX-13, and an announcement that a Phase 2a study has begun for NRX-1074.