TauRx Pharmaceuticals, a Singapore-based Alzheimer’s disease treatment developer backed by conglomerate Genting, has revealed it secured $71m through a rights issue in October 2017, Bloomberg has reported.
Spun out from University of Aberdeen in 2002, TauRx is developing therapies to treat neurodegenerative diseases and is initially focusing its efforts on Alzheimer’s disease.
The company’s lead drug candidate, LMTX, failed to deliver positive results in 2016 when studies showed it did not slow disease progression in patients also taking other medication.
The newly disclosed funding will support a clinical trial in 200 patients with mild Alzheimer’s disease who are not taking any other drugs. If TauRx obtains successful results by 2019 it will seek conditional or accelerated regulatory approval in the US and Europe.
TauRx will need $150m in fresh funding to conduct a phase 3 clinical trial should the current study prove successful, it said. It will consider an initial public offering or acquisition at that point but did not offer further details.
The company has now raised more than $500m according to its deputy chairman, Tay Siew Choon. It was valued at $2.5bn as of its last funding round in 2015, when it received $135m from unnamed existing and new investors.
Genting Management, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Genting, provided $112m in funding for TauRx in 2012. Diversified holding company Dundee Corporation of Toronto supplied $10.5m in 2013, adding to its initial commitment of $20m in 2011.
TauRx’s shareholders reportedly also include Singaporean state-owned investment firm Temasek and development bank DBS.