TauRx targets dementia with $135m round

TauRx, a spinout of Aberdeen University, has secured $135m in a venture round designed to support the company through Phase 3 clinical trials for its novel dementia treatment.

TauRx said a mix of new and current investors supported the round, but did not reveal its backers. The Singapore-based company, which still has its primary research centre in Aberdeen, has now raised $177m in external funding. It previously held a $31.5m venture round in 2012, and secured an extra $10.5m in private equity financing the year after.

The company’s primary drug candidate LMTX is a tau-based disease modifying agent which is aimed at Alzheimer’s disease, but could also show potential in other neurodegenerative disorders. The drug works by inhibiting the aggregation of proteins which support the development of Alzheimer’s and related disorders. The drug will now enter its Phase 3 trials which the company hopes to complete over the next year.

Claude Wischik, co-founder of TauRx, said: “The additional investment has been provided through a combination of new investors and existing shareholders and will support our Phase 3 clinical trials program. This new investment was raised at successively higher share prices during the course of 2015, reflecting the confidence investors have in our tau aggregation inhibition technology and in the promise of our lead product, LMTX.”