Aprecia seeks funding ahead of first ZipDose drug launch
A filing submitted to the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) last week indicates that the Pennsylvania, US-based delivery technology developer has raised nearly $15m (€11m) in a debt financing round that saw it issue bonds that are due to expire in August 2015. The filing also suggests that the privately-owned, venture capital backed firm wants to raise a further $21m.
According to the US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) Aprecia’s ZipDose delivery technology is a system that can be used to ensure the “rapid dispersion of a wide variety of therapeutic agents” in solid dose pharmaceutical products.
On its (rather minimalist) website Aprecia says Zipdose “achieves a true paradigm shift in precisely engineered fast melts that are high dose, fast flashing and properly taste masked” and is produced using a manufacturing process that is “fundamentally different and unique” from others.
The current funding round is one of several Aprecia has launched since the firm was founded in 2003 the most recent of which – in November 2012 – saw it raise some $4m in a debt financing that was also designed to fund further development of the technology.
The financing move follows just a few weeks after Aprecia announced that Don Wetherhold – a current senior VP at Omnicare – would return and serve as the firm’s next CEO.
The financing coupled with the appointment of Wetherhold – who used to be Aprecia’s corporate commercialization officer – suggests the firm is close to making the ZipDose technology available commercially.
According to comments made company chairman E Thomas Arington when Wetherhold’s was hired indicate he was “instrumental in devising our commercialization strategy at Aprecia.”
He added that: “We are now preparing to file our first product, and we have two additional products in development.”
