Oryzon Genomics secures project funding from two loans

BARCELONA & CAMBRIDGE, Mass.—Biopharmaceutical company Oryzon Genomics has announced the receipt of two unsecured concessional loans from the Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness of the Government of Spain, and with the participation of the UE (FEDER funds). This loan was included under the RETOS Collaboration 2015 program. The company will receive approximately $1.3 million in multiyear disbursements to support further development of its epigenetic inhibitors against neurodegenerative and oncologic indications.

More specifically, these two loans will fund a pair of projects that are currently underway under Oryzon's leadership in collaboration with certain public and private institutions. The two projects are slated to run from March 1 of this year to the end of 2017, and the loans are slated to be reimbursed during 10 years, with a three-year grace period and a subsidized fixed interest rate of 0.329 percent. The public institutions collaborating with Oryzon in these projects will receive the necessary funds to cover the costs of their research from the Spanish government in the form of a non-refundable grant.

“The two RETOS Collaboration 2015 loans are an excellent addition to Oryzon’s growing list of public aids. We are pleased to receive funding that will support the advancement of our research and development programs. These grants are valuable in providing Oryzon with the necessary funding to develop our assets and in showing that our technology has been reviewed and validated by a panel of scientific independent experts,” Carlos Buesa, president and CEO of Oryzon, said in a press release.

One of the loans relates to the project entitled “Evaluation of the efficacy of epigenetic inhibitors in experimental models of human pathologies,” which will be conducted together with Autonomous University of Barcelona and Bosch i Gimpera Foundation. The total budget of this project is approximately $1.1 million. The project encompasses further investigations of the role of ORY-2001 and other compounds in various neurological disorders, such as Huntington’s disease.

The other loan will be utilized to fund the project entitled “Discovery and combination of new therapies for the treatment of cancer based on the modulation of epigenetic targets and the receptors of adenosine.” The participants for this project include Oryzon, Palo Biopharma, the University of Santiago de Compostela and Leitat Technological Center. The total budget for this project is roughly $1.7 million. This project is dedicated to exploring the role of new inhibitors directed to epigenetic targets other than LSD1 in cancer. The project will also examine the potential synergies of new epigenetic inhibitors with Adenosine receptor antagonists.

SOURCE: Oryzon Genomics