Date: Jan 13, 2012 Source: bizjournals (
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Medical technology firm InCytu Inc. of Lincoln, R.I., has taken in $1.86 million in a new equity funding round, federal documents show.
A total of 11 investors participated in the funding, according to the filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. While they were not identified by names, the filing did list as a related person Richard Berenson, managing director of Venzyme Catalyst of Newton, which lists InCytu as a client on its website. Berenson is also listed on the InCytu website as acting CFO, and is CEO in his own right of Heartlander Surgical Inc. of Westwood.
In an article this past June, president and CEO of InCytu Anthony Vasconcellos said that the company was internally funded for an undisclosed amount. SEC documents show that the company has raised at least $5.6 million since it was founded in 2007.
When reached by phone Friday, Vasconcellos said, "The funding is for completing the development and moving into clinical evaluation phase for the first of our programs." The company has chosen as its main area of focus for the Cellarium platform, a vaccine for cancer. Vasconcellos said that InCytu would be studying applications for use in humans and in dogs, to open up a revenue stream in the growing pet health-care market. That could bring in a revenue stream while the human trials continue.
"I don't think you have to do any less work or be any less careful," Vasconcellos said of developing treatments for the pet market, "but some of the hurdles for commercialization are easier to accomplish."
InCytu is based on the Cellarium platform technology first developed by David Mooney of Harvard University. Cellarium uses a biopolymer scaffold the size of a vitamin pill that is implanted to function as a micro-factory, drawing in naturally occurring cells, reprogramming them to fight cancer or grow new tissue in a damaged area, then targeting the newly programmed cells to those areas, according to the company's website.
The last funding for InCytu came in August 2009, when the company boosted its April 2009 financing round from $2.77 million to $3.25 million. Vasconcellos did not want to disclose the names of any of the backers, but he did say it was a combination of institutional and angel investors, and the bulk of the new round came from inside investors.
"We are very pleased with our investor group," he said. "In fact, there is excellent alignment between our goals for the company and their goals for the company."
