Horizon Technology Finance and Emalex Biosciences Announce $15 Million Venture Loan Facility
Summary
Farmington, Connecticut & Chicago, Illinois June 3, 2020 Horizon Technology Finance Corporation (NASDAQ: HRZN) (Horizon), a leading specialty finance company that provides capital in the form of secured loans to venture capital backed companies in the technology, life science, healthcare information and services, and sustainability industries, and Emalex Biosciences, Inc. (Emalex), a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company focused on developing treatments for central nervous system movement disorders and fluency disorders, announced today a $15 million venture loan facility to advance Emalexs development programs through clinical trials.Emalex is a portfolio company of Paragon Biosciences, a life science innovator that creates, invests in, and builds life science companies. Paragon accelerates research and development in artificial intelligence, cell and gene therapy, synthetic biology and biopharmaceuticals.Paragon and its partners have invested or committed to invest more than $1B in our portfolio companies to achieve our mission of solving human and societal challenges, said Jeff Aronin, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Paragon Biosciences. There is a significant unmet need in Tourette syndrome and childhood-onset fluency disorder, and we are proud that Emalex is progressing with clinical research that might help improve the lives of patients and their families.Emalex is rapidly progressing the development of ecopipam in two Phase 2 clinical trials and has been granted Fast Track designation by the FDA for the treatment of Tourette syndrome, said Gerald A. Michaud, President of Horizon. Ecopipam has shown promise in treating Tourette syndrome and childhood-onset fluency disorder, which affects over 3 million Americans. Emalex is evaluating the safety and efficacy of ecopipam (EBS-101), an investigational first-in-class drug designed to selectively block the actions of the neurotransmitter dopamine at the D1 receptor, in Phase 2 clinical trials for the treatment of Tourette syndrome in children and adolescents and childhood-onset fluency disorder in adults.