New start-up TopiVert gets $12.5 million funding

UK investment group Imperial Innovations (AIM: IVO) and SV Life Sciences have committed to invest £8 million ($12.5 million) in a new start-up company TopiVert, which will focus on developing topical medicines for inflammatory diseases of the eye and gut.

TopiVert has licensed NSKI (narrow spectrum kinase inhibitor)-related intellectual property from RespiVert, a former Imperial Innovations portfolio company acquired by US health care giant Johnson & Johnson (NYSE: JNJ) unit Janssen Biotech (formerly known as Centocor Ortho Biotech) (The Pharma Letter June 1, 2010), for TopiVert’s exclusive use in discovering and developing NSKIs for inflammatory diseases of the eye and gut. Both participants in this funding round were also investors in RespiVert.

TopiVert will enter into an exclusive drug discovery collaboration with RespiVert aimed at identifying new NSKIs. TopiVert will receive exclusive rights to select and develop resulting NSKIs for the treatment of inflammatory diseases of the eye and gut, such as uveitis and inflammatory bowel disease, while RespiVert will receive exclusive rights to select and develop resulting NSKIs for the treatment of other indications, such as inflammatory diseases of the lungs.