Milestone Pharmaceuticals Inc., a cardiovascular drug development company, announces the completion of a $13 million round of equity financing. The round is led by Pappas Ventures, the Business Development Bank of Canada (BDC), and GO Capital. Other participating investors are Fonds de solidarité FTQ (FSTQ), and the company's previous investors, iNovia Healthcare Ventures, who played a key role during the Company's founding and was the lead investor in the earlier rounds, and Fonds Bio-Innovation.
Funding will be used to continue development of MSP-2017 and related products, the company's lead candidate series for episodic treatment of transient cardiovascular conditions such as paroxysmal supraventricular tachycardia (PSVT), and stable angina, amongst others.
"We are excited that this group of leading life sciences investors shares our vision for developing cardiology products for unmet medical needs in atrial arrhythmias and ischemic conditions," said Philippe Douville, Chief Executive Officer at Milestone. "MSP-2017 will be a first-in-class medication for a target group of patients who will benefit from a "pill-in-the-pocket" to terminate acute PSVT episodes in the unmonitored setting without necessarily having to resort to the emergency room."
"We believe that Milestone's strategy to address PSVT is consistent with the trends toward consumer-centric health with patients being more involved in managing their medical conditions and reducing the economic burden on the healthcare system," said Ela Borenstein, Partner, BDC Health Venture Fund, who joins the company's board of directors.
"The Fonds de solidarité FTQ is pleased to invest in Milestone, a pre-clinical company that it has been supporting indirectly for many years. This investment has been made in association with a strong group of Canadian and US based investors that are members of the Fonds' network. The presence of US investors confirms the high quality of the science developed in Quebec and nourishes the Fonds' commitment to pursue the development of Quebec's life science sector" said Janie Béïque Senior Vice-President New Economy.
In conjunction with this financing, Eric Linsley, Managing Partner of Pappas Ventures, Scott Weiner, Senior Principal at Pappas Ventures and Dominic Jaikaran, Principal at BDC Health Venture Fund, will also join Milestone's Board of Directors. The FSTQ will name a Board representative in the coming months. Philippe Lamarre and Adeoye Olukotun will retire from Milestone's Board.
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