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ITALY - TVM leads EUR 10.5m funding for BioXell

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BioXell has raised EUR 10.5m in financing through an extension of the Series C round concluded in October, 2004. International life science investor TVM Capital led the financing, while BB Biotech, Index Ventures and Life Science Partners also increased their position in the Company. Hubert Birner of TVM Capital will join BioXell's board of directors. The NEXT fund of Finlombarda, the financial services firm of the Lombardy region, also used the financing round as an opportunity to invest in one of Italy's high profile biotechnology companies.

The new funds bring the total raised to date to 73 million in private financing since the Company was spun out from Roche over 4 years ago. In that time BioXell has built a strong portfolio of clinical and preclinical compounds to treat urological and inflammatory diseases. BXL628, the company's lead product candidate, has already successfully completed a Phase IIa trial in Benign Prostatic Hyperplasia (BPH), and now has a 500 patient Phase IIb trial currently underway in the same indication. BXL628 is being studied in two additional Phase IIa trials in Overactive Bladder (OAB) and Non-Bacterial Chronic Prostatitis (CP-CPPS), both of which will report out later this year. Last month the company announced that it had in-licensed MNAC13, an anti-TrKA monoclonal antibody for the treatment of chronic pain, from Lay Line Genomics. These additional funds will help BioXell maintain a strong balance sheet despite its aggressive development schedule.

Francesco Sinigaglia, BioXell's CEO, said, 'We are pleased with the evolution of our company in such a short time, from a broader research group into a more integrated and focused development company. The additional funds give us the flexibility to tap the public markets at some time in the future, and enable us to continue to focus on adding value to the Company by advancing compounds into development. TVM has a strong track record of backing winners, and we are delighted they have chosen to invest in BioXell.'

Hubert Birner, general partner of TVM, commented, 'We invested in BioXell because of the strength of the team and the breadth of the development programmes they have put in place. We see a lot of companies and quite frankly we believe that BioXell has the potential to become one of Europe's leading biopharmaceutical companies.'

Corporate counsel for BioXell was like in all previous financing rounds, Dr Christoph von Einem from White & Case LLP.

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