Firm raised over $20 million in the last month to develop anti-cancer, -bacterial, and -inflammatory candidates.

South Korean biopharma CrystalGenomics raised KRW3 billion ($2.6 million) through a private placement to the Korea Seoul Life Science Fund. The firm said it will use the new financing to support R&D, including three clinical-stage drugs.

The firm has already raised KRW 20 billion over the last month through two separate KRW 10 billion bond issues to financial and investment institutions in Korea, bringing the total raised to some $20 million.

CrystalGenomics positions itself as a structural chemoproteomics-based drug discovery and development company. The firm is leveraging three platforms. Its Soluble Protein Solution technology generates soluble forms of disease-related proteins, which are otherwise insoluble when expressed in heterologous systems. The Structural ChemoProteomics platform is designed to generate novel leads using 3-D structural information on target proteins. The firm’s Structure-Based Drug Factory platform is then applied to enable lead optimization using 3-D structural data on target-inhibitor complexes.

Three candidates are in clinical development. Lead development candidate CG100649 is an issue-specific NSAID that CrystalGenomics claims demonstrates potentially improved cardiovascular, gastrointestinal, and renal safety profiles. The drug has completed a Phase IIa clinical trial in Europe. CG400549 is an antibacterial drug candidate designed to inhibit FabI (Enoyl-[Acyl-Carrier-Protein] Reductase), an essential enzyme in the fatty acid synthesis. In development for treating multidrug resistant Staphylococcus aureus, the drug has completed a single ascending dose trial in Europe, and is undergoing a Phase I multiple ascending dose study. Also in Phase I trials, CG200745 is an HDAC inhibitor in development for the potential treatment of a range of solid cancers. 

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