Uqar spinout Ovensa has obtained $1.38m of additional funding from investors including commercialisation firm Aligo Innovation.
Ovensa, a Canada-based oncology-focused spinout from Université du Québec à Rimouski (Uqar), has achieved a $1.38m close in a funding round that featured commercialisation firm Aligo Innovation.
The round included 22 angel entrepreneurs from Anges Québec and the network’s institutional fund, Anges Québec Capital. Uqar is one of 11 university partners of Aligo.
Ovensa is working on nanotherapeutics that break through biological hurdles such as blood-brain barriers and mucous membranes. The platform, called Triozan, could help fight brain tumours and Alzheimer’s disease by directly confronting once elusive glioblastoma cells and amyloid proteins.
Ovensa holds patents in the US and Europe for Triozan, which is currently being tested against metastatic breast cancer, an advanced form of the disease.
The company was founded in 2012 and is based on research by Jonathan Gagnon, professor of chemistry in the Department of Biology, Chemistry and Geography at Uqar.
In June 2017, Aligo Innovation, Anges Québec and undisclosed private investors supplied $530,000 to Ovensa.
Stephane Gagne, chief executive of Ovensa, said: “This renewed confidence and additional financing from our investors shows that they are satisfied with the results achieved, the company’s rapid growth and the effective management of financial resources in our first year of operations.
“The new round of financing will allow us to forge ahead with promising developments in the areas of cancer treatment, antibiotic resistance prevention and the delivery of medications to the brain.”
