The Merck Serono spin-off has now secured $43m over two rounds as it prepares to advance its lead product candidate, which is targeted at diabetes sufferers.
Poxel, a France-based spin-off of pharmaceutical company Merck Serono which is backed by investors including bank Credit Agricole, has raised €10m ($13m) in an extension to its series B round.
The extension increased the size of the round to €18m ($23.3m). State-backed investment fund Bpifrance’s corporate venturing unit provided the equity portion of the latest financing, while Kreos Capital supplied the debt portion.
Edmond de Rothschild Investment Partners led the initial series B funding in early 2013, after investing alongside Credit Agricole’s private equity unit and InnoBio, a state-backed venture capital fund that was subsequently folded into Bpifrance, in Poxel’s $19.7m series A round in 2010.
Poxel will use the money to develop Imeglimin, its anti-diabetic product candidate, and to advance an additional programme based on controlling hyperglycemia and dyslipidemia.