Biopharmaceuticals Venture Capital

 News Release - March 6, 2007

PainCeptor Pharma Raises $24.4 M Series B Investment Round

Novel Pain Therapeutic Drug Candidates to Enter Clinical Development

MONTREAL, March 6 (Healthcare Sales & Marketing Network) - PainCeptor Pharma Corp., a pharmaceutical company focused on the development of novel therapeutics for the treatment of chronic and acute pain, today announced it has raised $24.4 M in a Series B investment round. Investors in this round include: Desjardins Venture Capital, CDP Capital (managed by VantagePoint Venture Partners), T2C2/Bio 2000, Business Development Bank of Canada, and Lothian Partners 27 (sarl) SICAR. To date, PainCeptor has raised a cumulative total of $47 M in venture capital funding.

PainCeptor's two major pain therapeutic programs, targeting NGF (nerve growth factor) and ASICs (acid sensing ion channels), are in late pre-clinical development and are both on track to enter Phase I clinical trials later this year. The proceeds of this investment round will be used primarily to advance these pain programs into clinical development, expand PainCeptor's intellectual property portfolio, and enhance the company's product pipeline.

"Despite the high number of under-treated pain sufferers, there have been few new drugs in recent years with novel mechanisms of action that combine strong efficacy with reduced side effects" commented Dr. Gary Bennett, Canada Senior Research Chair, Department of Anesthesia and Faculty of Dentistry, McGill University. "With its NGF and ASIC antagonist programs, PainCeptor is well positioned amid the leading developers of the most promising next generation therapies to address these large and growing needs."

"We are very excited about the potential of our clinical candidates to treat pain by targeting the peripheral nervous system and provide much needed improvements in Pain Therapeutics" added Dr. Louis Lamontagne, President and CEO of PainCeptor. "This financing will enable us to rapidly advance our two lead programs into the clinic".

About PainCeptor Pharma

PainCeptor Pharma is a pharmaceutical company developing next generation therapeutic drugs for the treatment of chronic and acute pain. PainCeptor's therapeutic programs are concentrated on some of the most promising, novel, yet scientifically validated therapeutic targets within the PNS (peripheral nervous system). By focusing on modulating target receptors in the PNS, PainCeptor expects to enhance the efficacy and avoid the many detrimental side effects associated with today's pain drugs which act primarily in the CNS (central nervous system). PainCeptor's development pipeline includes two lead antagonist programs, targeting NGF/p75-TrkA and ASIC1a, and a third antagonist program targeting ASIC3.

Source: PainCeptor Pharma

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