OncoGenex Technologies Inc Raises $3.6 Million in Private Financing
VANCOUVER, British Columbia -- January 24, 2002 OncoGenex Technologies Inc. announced today the completion of a $3,600,000 private placement. The financing was led by BDC Venture Capital, with participation by Milestone Medica Corporation, Qwest Emerging Biotech (VCC) Fund Ltd. and others.
OncoGenex Technologies Inc. is focused on advancing and commercializing novel therapeutics for cancer. OncoGenex recently announced an agreement with Isis Pharmaceuticals Inc. of Carlsbad, CA to co-develop and commercialize OncoGenex's lead product, OGX-011. This drug combines OncoGenex's proprietary antisense position in inhibitors to the treatment resistant factor, Clusterin, with Isis' proprietary second-generation antisense chemistry. OGX-011 will be the first antisense drug based on Isis' proprietary second-generation chemistry, called 2'-O-methoxyethyl, to enter the clinic for the treatment of cancer.
"OncoGenex is now well positioned to advance its lead drug through Phase I clinical trials and deliver on its aggressive business plan," noted Scott Cormack, President and CEO of OncoGenex. "The funds raised, together with the addition of a number of key scientific and business experts to our Board, augment our existing co-development alliance with Isis Pharmaceuticals."
"With this financing and other sources of funding raised over the past year, we are on track to begin two phase one clinical trials with OGX-011 in prostate and other cancers by mid 2002" stated Dr. Martin Gleave, the company's Chief Scientific Officer and Professor of Surgery at the University of British Columbia and Vancouver Hospital.
BDC Venture Capital, Calgary, led the financing with participation by Qwest Emerging Biotech(VCC) Fund Ltd. and follow-on participation by Milestone Medica Corporation. BDC Venture Capital is a major capital investor in Canada with a focus on technology-based businesses that have high growth potential and that are positioned to become dominant players in their markets.
"We are excited to be involved with a company at the leading edge of developing and commercializing novel cancer therapeutics," remarked Gary Bantle, Director, Life Sciences, BDC Venture Capital.
Classen, Newkirk and Maenz have spent more than five years working on processing methods to better tailor certain feed products to different types of livestock.
"These resources enable OncoGenex to maintain its rapid progress toward significant pre-clinical and clinical milestones, and to work effectively with its commercial and medical partners," added David Shindler, CEO of Milestone Medica.
OncoGenex is the exclusive licensee of technologies from the University of British Columbia and the Vancouver Hospital & Health Sciences Centre. OncoGenex has an established co-development relationship with Isis Pharmaceuticals, as well as working relationships with the Division of Urology and the Prostate Centre at the Vancouver Hospital & Health Sciences Centre. OncoGenex currently has two products in pre-clinical development with its lead, OGX-011, intended to enter the clinic in mid 2002.
Additional technologies are being evaluated for future development. Further information about OncoGenex is available at www.oncogenex.ca.
BDC Venture Capital is a major venture capital investor in Canada, active at every stage of the company's development cycle, from start-up through expansion, with a focus on technology-based businesses that have high growth potential and that are positioned to become dominant players in their markets. BDC Venture Capital has been involved in venture capital since 1975 and has to date invested in more than 270 different companies. It currently manages over $300 million in venture capital assets and more than 80 per cent of its portfolio is invested in the areas of biotechnology, medical and health related technology, telecommunications, information technology and electronics.
Milestone Medica Corporation's mission is to enable Canadian biomedical research to advance from early-stage technologies to innovative health care products. Since 1999, the corporation has been providing both investment and early stage management designed specifically for launching commercial developments based on Canadian medical discoveries. A majority Canadian-owned company established in 1998, Milestone Medica is a joint venture between RBC Technology Ventures Inc. and Research Corporation Technologies based in Tucson, Arizona (www.milestonemedica.com; www.royalbank.com/rbcv; www.rctech.com). Currently, MMC is concentrating its management and financial resources on its existing national portfolio of ventures and is not seeking new opportunities.
Qwest Emerging Biotech (VCC) Fund Ltd. is a private British Columbia Venture Capital Corporation that makes venture capital investments in early and emerging stage biotech companies located in British Columbia and offers investors tax benefits (30 per cent Tax Credit and RSP/RIF eligibility). Qwest Emerging Biotech (VCC) Fund Ltd is controlled by Qwest Bancorp Ltd, which is a Vancouver based merchant bank. Qwest Bancorp Ltd has successfully raised and invested over $250 million in western Canadian based technology, biotechnology, oil & gas and real estate and agri-businesses.
This press release contains forward-looking statements concerning OncoGenex's drug development program. There are no guarantees that future pre-clinical studies or clinical trials will confirm the preliminary results referred to in this release or that OGX-011 will receive regulatory approvals or prove to be commercially successful. Actual results could differ materially from those projected in this release.
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