{"id":8556,"date":"2012-03-13T09:24:28","date_gmt":"2012-03-13T13:24:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sciencebusiness.technewslit.com\/?p=8556"},"modified":"2012-03-13T09:26:02","modified_gmt":"2012-03-13T13:26:02","slug":"biotech-secures-13m-in-series-b-funding-for-clinical-trial","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/technewslit.com\/sciencebusiness\/?p=8556","title":{"rendered":"Biotech Secures $13M in Series B Funding for Clinical Trial"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_998\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-998\" style=\"width: 200px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><a href=\"http:\/\/technewslit.com\/sciencebusiness\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/09\/BloodBag_NIH.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-998\" title=\"BloodBag_NIH\" src=\"http:\/\/technewslit.com\/sciencebusiness\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/09\/BloodBag_NIH.jpg\" alt=\"Blood bag (NIH)\" width=\"200\" height=\"200\" srcset=\"https:\/\/technewslit.com\/sciencebusiness\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/09\/BloodBag_NIH.jpg 200w, https:\/\/technewslit.com\/sciencebusiness\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/09\/BloodBag_NIH-150x150.jpg 150w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 200px) 100vw, 200px\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-998\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">(National Institutes of Health)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.hemaquest.com\/inc\/HemaQuestAnnounces13MillionFinancing.asp\">HemaQuest Pharmaceuticals Inc.<\/a>, a biotechnology company in San Diego, closed a $13 million extension of its series B financing, the second round of funding after initial start-up. The extension is funded by existing investors Aberdare Ventures, De Novo Ventures, Forward Ventures, Latterell Venture Partners, and Lilly Ventures.<\/p>\n<p>HemaQuest develops small molecule therapies to treat disorders in hemoglobin, the protein in red blood cells that carries oxygen. The financing is expected to fund a phase 2b clinical test of the company&#8217;s lead candidate HQK-1001 in patients with sickle cell disease.\u00a0 <a href=\"http:\/\/www.hemaquest.com\/technology\/tech_HQK-1001.asp\">HQK-1001<\/a> is an orally administered drug derived from short-chain fatty acids designed to induce fetal globin and stimulate red blood cell production. These properties address the mechanisms underlying the blood disorders sickle cell anemia and beta thalassemia.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov\/pubmedhealth\/PMH0001554\/\">Sickle cell anemia<\/a> is a disease passed down through families in which red blood cells form an abnormal crescent shape, rather than the normal disc shape. The sickle-shaped cells deliver less oxygen to the body&#8217;s tissues, and can get stuck more easily in small blood vessels, interrupting healthy blood flow. <a href=\"http:\/\/www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov\/pubmedhealth\/PMH0001613\/\">Beta thalassemia<\/a> is also an inherited a blood disorder, where the body makes an abnormal form of hemoglobin and results in excessive destruction of red blood cells, which leads to anemia.<\/p>\n<p>The technology behind HQK-1001 was first developed at Boston University by a research team that included HemaQuest co-founder <a href=\"http:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/hematology\/research\/susan-p-perrine-md\/\">Susan Perrine<\/a>, a professor of medicine, pediatrics, pharmacology, and experimental therapeutics at BU. The drug has completed animal toxicology studies and phase 1 clinical trials that show it is safe and well-tolerated.<\/p>\n<p>This financing extension is expected to allow the company to complete the phase 2b trial of HQK-1001 and fund operations through early 2014.<\/p>\n<p>Read more: <a href=\"http:\/\/sciencebusiness.technewslit.com\/?p=8444\">Simple Blood Test Checks Sickle Cell Anemia Symptoms Risk<\/a><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">*\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 *\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 *<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>HemaQuest Pharmaceuticals Inc., a biotechnology company in San Diego, closed a $13 million extension of its series B financing, the second round of funding after initial start-up. The extension is funded by existing investors Aberdare Ventures, De Novo Ventures, Forward Ventures, Latterell Venture Partners, and Lilly Ventures. HemaQuest develops small molecule therapies to treat disorders [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[31,21,28,74,23,24,64,27,26,19],"class_list":["post-8556","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-finance","tag-biomedical","tag-biotech","tag-clinical-trials","tag-entrepreneurs","tag-equity","tag-investment","tag-life-sciences","tag-pharmaceuticals","tag-university","tag-venture-capital"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/technewslit.com\/sciencebusiness\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8556","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/technewslit.com\/sciencebusiness\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/technewslit.com\/sciencebusiness\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/technewslit.com\/sciencebusiness\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/technewslit.com\/sciencebusiness\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=8556"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/technewslit.com\/sciencebusiness\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8556\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8561,"href":"https:\/\/technewslit.com\/sciencebusiness\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8556\/revisions\/8561"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/technewslit.com\/sciencebusiness\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=8556"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/technewslit.com\/sciencebusiness\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=8556"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/technewslit.com\/sciencebusiness\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=8556"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}