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Euro Ventures - Tuesday, November 3, 2009

PDC Biotech GmbH Raises €4M Series A

PDC Biotech GmbH, a Vienna, Austria-based women’s health drug startup whose first product focuses on preterm labor and primary dysmenorrhea, has raised over €4M ($5.8M) in Series A funding. MIG Verwaltungs AG and Edmond de Rothschild Investment Partners co-led the round.

Patricia Griffin and Diane Kalina are the co-founders of PDC, which was previously awarded €1M ($1.4M) in seed funding from the Austria Wirtschaftsservice (AWS) and a grant of €517K ($756K) from the Zentrum für Innovation und Technologie (ZIT, an agency of the City of Vienna for promotion of innovation and technology). The total funds raised since inception amount to over €5.56M ($8.1M).

Proceeds from new funding will be used to complete preclinical work and the first clinical study of the company’s lead compound, PDC31 which is being developed for the treatment of preterm labor and primary dysmenorrhea. Preterm labor is defined as regular uterine contractions associated with cervical changes occurring before 37 weeks of gestation. Preterm birth, which is associated with increased risk of neonatal morbidity and mortality, is most often preceded by preterm labor. Primary Dysmenorrhea is a disabling condition found in high prevalence among adolescent females. Severe abdominal pain is caused by frequent and prolonged uterine contractions that decrease blood flow to the myometrium resulting in ischemia.

PDC31 is a peptide antagonist of the prostaglandin F2α (FP) receptor, the lead in a series of FP antagonists exclusively licensed to PDC Biotech GmbH from Theratechnologies, a Canadian biopharmaceutical company. PDC Biotech GmbH is expecting to conclude its remaining preclinical work early in mid 2010, and then begin a Phase I/II trial.

For more information regarding this deal click here.

By Raghuraman R