Prexton closes €8.7 million in Series A financing to develop treatments for Parkinson’s disease

Feb 26 2015

Swiss based startup attracts venture funding from leading European VC firms to address Parkinson’s disease and other CNS conditions

Prexton Therapeutics, a biopharmaceutical company developing novel therapeutic compounds for the treatment of CNS conditions including Parkinson’s disease, today announces the closing of a Series A financing of €8.7 million ($10 million) co-led by Sunstone Capital and Ysios Capital. Merck Serono Ventures (MS Ventures), the company's founding investor, will also participate.

Prexton Therapeutics was founded in 2012 by Francois Conquet and MS Ventures as part of the Merck Serono Entrepreneur Partnership Program, a facility set-up to support the creation of spin-offs from Merck Serono.

This first funding will help Prexton Therapeutics to develop novel small molecules that target the metabotropic Glutamate Receptor 4 (mGluR4) up to completion of Phase 1. This has the potential to improve motor complications in Parkinson’s disease patients. The compounds were originally licensed from Domain Therapeutics, a French biopharmaceutical R&D company specializing in G protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs).

"Our lead compound has demonstrated impressive efficacy in preclinical models. We look forward to advancing this compound up to the clinical stage in the coming year," said Francois Conquet, CEO of Prexton Therapeutics.

The Prexton team combines the best research and development expertise in the CNS field. They have collaborated together for many years and each member has a successful background in the pharma industry. "The caliber of the team and their collective scientific and industry expertise will make a huge impact in the development of this new series of molecules for Parkinson’s disease," said Andreas Segerros, Partner at Sunstone Capital.

"Prexton Therapeutics is taking a uniquely promising approach to address Parkinson’s disease; a neurodegenerative pathology which still has huge unmet medical needs," said Raúl Martín-Ruiz, Investment Director at Ysios Capital.

“Prexton’s approach represents a novel way of developing treatments for Parkinson’s disease by stimulating a compensatory system that is not impacted by the disease. MS Ventures has been supporting Prexton from its foundation and we are excited about the progress the program has made so far and that we are about to reach clinical stage this year,” said Jasper Bos, Senior Director at Merck Serono Ventures.

In the course of this fundraising, Andreas Segerros of Sunstone and Raúl Martín-Ruiz of Ysios, will join the Board of Directors of Prexton. Jasper Bos will continue to represent MS Ventures.