Generic drug manufacturer Pharmascience has invested in Israel-based gastrointestinal pharmaceutical developer RDD Pharma as part of a $9.5m series B round.
RDD raised $6m of the funding from Pharmascience and an undisclosed life science fund, and the rest from investment firms OrbiMed and Capital Point. The company had previously received $7.2m in funding from OrbiMed in 2012.
Founded in 2009, RDD Pharma is developing a treatment for chronic anal fissures and another for faecal incontinence in patients with spinal cord injuries.
The faecal incontinence treatment, RDD-0315, recently completed a phase 2A study in Europe which led to a grant award from the US Department of Defense. The anal fissure program, RDD-1219, is currently undergoing a phase 3 registration trial.
The funding will be used to progress clinical trials for the product candidates. In addition to contributing to the series B round, Pharmascience subsidiary Pendopharm has acquired the Canadian rights to RDD Pharma’s anal fissure product.
Jason Laufer, chief executive of RDD Pharma, said: “We are pleased to have two new investor groups join OrbiMed and our other investors to further fund clinical studies of products with large unmet needs in anorectal disease.”