Astrogen Raises 9 Billion KRW Through Bridge Funding... "Accelerating Pipeline Progress"

[Asia Economy Reporter Hyunseok Yoo] Astrogen announced on the 24th that it secured an investment of 9 billion KRW on the 21st. This is a bridge funding between Series B and C, marking an additional investment 1 year and 1 month after raising 13 billion KRW in Series B last December.

This investment included follow-up investments from existing institutional investors Partners Investment, BNK Venture Investment, Intops Investment-Wonik Investment Partners, and KB Securities, with Hi Investment Partners participating as a new institutional investor.

Astrogen plans to use the investment funds for conducting Phase 2 clinical trials of a candidate substance for autism spectrum disorder treatment, entering Phase 1 clinical trials for an Alzheimer's treatment candidate substance, discovering new pipelines, and building a platform to advance the experimental system for efficacy evaluation of brain disease treatment candidates, including the introduction of electrophysiological efficacy evaluation systems.

Hwang Su-kyung, CEO of Astrogen, said, “Despite the recent cautious investment sentiment among institutional investors due to COVID-19 and bio investment downturn, it is encouraging that funding was successfully completed in a short period.” He added, “Through this investment, we can accelerate the progress of pipelines currently in clinical trials, expand new pipelines, and introduce experimental equipment for multifaceted drug efficacy evaluation, thereby strengthening Astrogen’s competitiveness in the development of neurodegenerative disease treatments.”

Meanwhile, Astrogen is also accelerating its own pipeline development, recently signing a joint development contract with the French AI drug development company IKTOS for the discovery of innovative drug substances targeting Parkinson’s disease.