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Patrick Tresserras, Avizorex Pharma CEO.
 10.11.2014

Inveready enters the capital of biotech Avizorex

, a venture capital firm has injected 800,000 Euros into a spin-off company, based at Parc Científic de Barcelona and founded in 2013 by Patrick Tresserras fear and Professor Carlos Belmonte of Institute of Neurosciences of Alicante. Inveready´s funds investment, together with the public funding that the biotech has received, bring the total amount of funding to  2.5 million euros.

 

Avizorex, which was one of the participants of the last edition of the BioEmprenedorXXI program – an initiative promoted by Barcelona Activa, Biocat and Fundació “la Caixa” – is dedicated to pharmaceutical development in the field of ophthalmology. The company´s research focuses on the growing problem of dry eyes with an innovative therapeutic approach that has been validated in animal models and is based on the activation of cold thermoreceptors present in the eye to stimulate basal lacrimation.

The discovery of the spin-off was published in the journal Nature Medicine in 2010  () and demonstrated that stimulation of a protein called TRMP8 activates cold receptors present on the surface of the eye and increases tear secretion naturally, hence reducing ocular dryness.

Currently, there is only one prescription drug to fight this problem. The drug is Restasis®, by Allergan, a formulation of generic immunosuppressant cyclosporin discovered by the University of Georgia 20 years ago. There are also other developments in advanced clinical phases but with a low level of innovation. Among the most promising are MIM-D3, a TrkA antagonist discovered at McGill University developed by Mimetogen.