September 9, 2014
Company focused on developing compounds to kill antibiotic-resistant bacteria
Contact: Sarah Seagraves,
Senior VP for Marketing
(405) 813-2403
or email sseagraves@i2E.org
i2E, Inc., recently closed on a $1.4 million seed capital investment in Oklahoma City-based Synereca Pharmaceuticals, which is developing ground-breaking compound that kills drug resistant bacteria.
The investment was led by the i2E-managed Oklahoma Seed Capital Fund and Accele Venture Partners with participation by the SeedStep Angels group, also managed by i2E, as well as by Oklahoma Angel investors.
With research laboratories in Oklahoma City and Chapel Hill, N.C., Synereca Pharmaceuticals is pursuing development of inhibitors that overcome and prevent the growing bacterial resistance to antibiotics.
“We’ve demonstrated that we have a compounds that without shifting toxicity make antibiotics more effective,” said Clayton Duncan, Synereca CEO. “We’re going to use this investment to try to advance that set of compounds to improve the efficacy of the Colistin, an older antibiotic, against difficult to treat multidrug resistant bacteria. Over 90 percent of these investment dollars will go to research.”
Accele Venture Partners, LP, is a limited partnership formed to invest, together with established institutional life science investors, in the initial funding of life science companies selected and managed by Accele Biopharma, Inc.
The Oklahoma Seed Capital Fund is a state-appropriated investment fund through the Oklahoma Center for the Advancement of Science and Technology.
The SeedStep Angels group was founded by i2E in 2009 and is now the state’s largest angel investment group with more than 40 members and chapters in Oklahoma City, Tulsa, Ardmore and Muskogee.
About Synereca Pharmaceuticals
Management: Clayton Duncan, CEO; Richard Gammans, Ph.D., Chief Operation Officer; Scott Singleton, Ph.D., Chief Scientific Officer
Year Started: 2009
Location: Oklahoma City, OK and Chapel Hill, NC
Synereca Pharmaceuticals was created to address the growing problem of bacterial resistance to current antibiotics by developing drugs that restore or increase the effectiveness of existing antibiotics. Synereca’s development program focuses on inhibiting “RecA,” a key enzyme in bacterial DNA repair and the development and transmission of antibiotic resistance.
About i2E, Inc.: With offices in Oklahoma City and Tulsa, OK, i2E’s nationally recognized services include business expertise and funding for Oklahoma’s emerging small businesses. i2E has more than $40 million of investment capital under management.
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