Vensica Therapeutics closes $16 million investment round

Portfolio company, Vensica Therapeutics, a clinical stage biopharmaceutical company, announced that it has closed an investment round of $16 million. The investment round was led by Israel Biotech Fund ("IBF"), a venture fund investing in Israeli and Israeli-related biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies. Other investors in the round include Laborie, a global urology device company, Lew Pell, an experienced medical device investor, Agriline, a trust of which Vincent Tchenguiz is a discretionary beneficiary, and The Trendlines Group, an investor in innovation-based medical and agricultural technologies. The funds raised will support the company's phase II multicenter clinical trials in Europe and the USA.

The investment round follows an announcement by Vensica earlier this year on the signing of a strategic license and collaboration agreement with Merz Therapeutics, a business of the Merz Group and a leader in the field of neurotoxins. Vensica licensed Merz's botulinum neurotoxin A (XEOMIN®) for needle-free use in urological procedures. Vensica will expand its workforce in Israel for the next stage of clinical and regulatory development of its device together with XEOMIN®, focusing on overactive bladder treatment.

Vensica's needle-free platform for drug delivery will be utilized for botulinum toxin type A delivery into the urinary bladder for the treatment of different urological indications including overactive bladder, neurogenic bladder, and interstitial cystitis. Today's gold standard treatment requires needle injections of the neurotoxin into the bladder wall. Vensica's needle-free platform is expected to enable a far superior patient experience, to resolve many needle-associated issues, including pain, urinary retention, and to make a generally more complicated procedure easier. Vensica's platform is also anticipated to facilitate a more efficacious treatment through a more uniform delivery of the neurotoxin to the bladder wall.

Vensica CEO Avner Geva, commented,

Closing this investment round is an exceptional step for Vensica. Together with our partner and shareholder, Merz Therapeutics, and with the necessary funding, we are poised to plan and complete clinical and regulatory processes that will enable us to bring innovative and less invasive treatment of bladder diseases to the market.

Vensica Chair, Nissim Darvish, M.D., Ph.D., added,

it is our pleasure to welcome and thank our new investors, IBF and Agriline, joining our longstanding supporters Laborie, Lew Pell and The Trendlines Group. Vensica's team will work hard to get this solution to patients worldwide suffering from overactive bladder as well as other urinary bladder indications.

IBF's Co-Founder and Managing Partner, Ido Zairi, commented,

IBF is happy to join Vensica in this journey which may be life changing for many people suffering from bladder related conditions or diseases. We look forward to seeing Vensica's unique needle-free platform embedded as a method of treatment for overactive bladder and other indications.

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