11.28.05 June 2005: BioVisability Client receives First round Euro Funding Irish-US firm secures €5m in funding Sunday, June 19, 2005 - By Adrian Weckler An Irish-American biotechnology company, which is developing an anti-diarrhoea product, has secured €5 million in first-round funding. Trimed is being backed by Dublin biotech fund Seroba Bioventures and Swiss venture capital company Inventages. The company will be run as a joint venture between the Bray veterinary health firm Tridelta and the University of Nebraska. “This €5 million will get us into phase one of clinical studies,” said Brian Hett, chief executive of Tridelta and president of Trimed. “Hopefully, we'll get positive data. Then we'll have to get further funding, either in equity or possibly from licensing it to a bigger pharmaceutical company.” Hett said that he expected a tablet containing the developed product to appear in three to five years, depending on positive clinical trials and approval from the US Food and Drug Administration. He added that the finished product would have potential in both animal and human health. Trimed is being advised by Biovisability, a biotech consultancy firm in Dublin. Clinical research is expected to happen principally in the US, but the company's president said that Ireland would also benefit. “We're currently in the process of working out an agreement with the Allumentary Pharmaceutical Centre in Cork,” he said. “They will help us with animal research.” Hett said that the product was based on inducing a protein which occurs naturally in humans and animals. “We've shown that if you pre-treat gut tissue with this protein, you can reduce the level of bacteria sticking to the gut wall by over 75 per cent,” he said. “One of the uses for this is to prevent travellers' diarrhoea. If you go to Delhi and have a meal, your body will probably experience bacteria it's not used to. Whatour protein does is help the body to produce mucin, which is a protein that prevents this bacteria from sticking.” « Back