Osteal Therapeutics Closes an Oversubscribed $30 Million Series B Financing to Advance Platform Therapy for Treatment of Musculoskeletal Infection
Summary
In conjunction with the financing, Robert Luo, M.D., Managing Partner at HM Capital and Judson Cooper, Founding Principal of Prism Ventures LLC, joined the Board of Directors.The Series B funding will be used primarily to advance Osteals lead program, VT-X7 for periprosthetic joint infection (PJI), into later-stage clinical trials. Following the successful completion of an open-label Phase 2 trial, the company recently commenced enrollment of APEX, a randomized controlled study of VT-X7 in patients with chronic periprosthetic infections of the hip or knee.This is a very exciting time at Osteal as we expect to achieve a number of critical value-creating milestones in the coming months, said David Thompson, president and chief executive officer. This capital raise places Osteal in an excellent position to continue our progress with the VT-X7 program, while also leveraging our technical and scientific expertise to strategically expand our pipeline.Osteal is addressing a significant unmet medical need with a highly novel approach. Recent evidence demonstrates that the current gold standard for treatment of PJI, two-stage exchange arthroplasty, takes an average of 16 weeks has a success rate under 50% after 12 months, highlighting the unmet need for faster more reliable treatment options.VT-X7 (vancomycin HCL and tobramycin sulfate for irrigation) is a novel drug/device combination product designed to deliver therapeutic concentrations of vancomycin and tobramycin, well-established, broad-spectrum antibiotics, directly to the joint space and surrounding tissue to treat chronic periprosthetic joint infection. The company is leveraging the ability of concentrated, locally delivered antimicrobials to treat the bacterial biofilms typically responsible for musculoskeletal infections while minimizing off-target tissue exposure and associated adverse effects.