BioCentury
ARTICLE | Financial News

Sanderling backs IRCM spinout Liphorus

November 7, 2014 3:27 AM UTC

Liphorus Pharmaceuticals Inc. (Montreal, Quebec) raised $6.4 million in a series A round from Sanderling Ventures. The startup plans to develop small molecules targeting proprotein convertase subtilisin/kexin type 9 ( PCSK9) to treat hypercholesterolemia.

The company licensed IP developed by researchers at the Institut de Recherches Cliniques de Montreal (IRCM) including Nabil Seidah, whose team discovered PCSK9 in 2002. Seidah told BioCentury that Liphorus' technology directly addresses PCSK9 at the intracellular rather than extracellular level, although he would not give specific details. He added the technology was developed after researchers located a family carrying a mutation that prevents PCSK9 from exiting from cells, and whose members had very low circulating cholesterol. ...