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Josep Lluís Falcó, CEO and founder of Genesis Biomed consultancy firm, manager of the Genesis Ventures fund (Photo: Genesis Biomed).
 13.06.2018

Genesis Ventures selects the NeuroHeal project by the UAB’s Neurosciences Institute for its first investment

The Genesis Ventures fund—managed by the consultancy firm Genesis Biomed headquartered in the Barcelona Science Park—has secured its first deal with its investment of €75,000 in the NeuroHeal project, a new pharmacological combination that accelerates nerve regeneration, developed at the Neurosciences Institute (INc) of the Autonomous University of Barcelona (UAB). 

 

With this first injection of capital, the fund shows its commitment to early stage projects with the aim of helping them to accelerate product development, support the creation of spin-offs, generate a business plan and secure further funding.

For Genesis, both the potential of the product’s market and the potential of the research team have been key in choosing this project for its first investment.

The new pharmacological agent NeuroHeal has been created as a result of research led by scientist Caty Casas from the Group of Neuroplasticity and Regeneration of the INc at the UAB, and included the participation of David Romeo, a researcher from the INc-UAB and CIBERNED, and Dr Joaquim Forés from the Hospital Clínic Barcelona. 

NeuroHeal consists of a new treatment to promote and accelerate nerve regeneration processes and reduce muscular atrophy after peripheral nerve injuries. These types of injuries are caused by nerve compression, such as with injuries deriving from complications such as sciatica or carpel tunnel syndrome, or nerve sectioning in a limb due to an accident. 

The new drug combines two active ingredients that are already marketed for other indications and has been designed using artificial intelligence-based computational tools and systems biology studies.

“There is currently no pharmacological treatment indicated as an adjuvant therapy to accelerate nerve regeneration”, explains Caty Casas, leader of the NeuroHeal project. “For this reason, the clinical use of this new drug would be very well received, as it would considerably reduce rehabilitation time and promote greater functional recovery. The support from Genesis Ventures will allow us to advance all the phases of the project until it is made a reality”, she concludes.

With the capital invested, it is hoped that unregulated pre-clinical development trials can be carried out, which will give the project the necessary value to constitute a new spin-off and raise rounds of funding that complete the project’s life cycle until clinical phase 2a.

Josep Lluís Falcó, CEO and founder of Genesis Biomed, states: “At Genesis Ventures we are convinced that NeuroHeal is a project with great potential and we are really keen to start our investment fund activity with them”.

Throughout this year, Genesis Ventures hopes to carry on announcing more investments in early-stage research projects, as well as in newly-created biomedical start-ups.

Genesis Biomed joins the EIT Health Spain consortium

Genesis Biomed has recently been incorporated into EIT Health Spain, the Spanish node of the EIT Health consortium, consisting of more than 140 public and private entities from 16 European Union countries, committed to health innovation and its impact on improving peoples’ quality of life.

“We facilitate the search for partners for R&D&i projects who wish to apply mainly to EIT Health innovation programmes, as well as support them throughout the whole process”, points out Josep Lluís Falcó, founder and CEO of the specialist consultancy firm in the biomedical and health sector.

This strategic alliance will add value for entrepreneurs who advise Genesis Biomed to transfer their science to the market: “The participation of our entrepreneurs in the EIT Health consortia means non-dilutive public funding for them, which is really appealing for the development plans of their respective products”, states Falcó.

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