MerLion Pharmaceuticals Completes Growth Financing Round

The funds raised will primarily be used to finance the production and market launch of MerLion’s US FDA and Health Canada approved drug Xtoro^TM, an otic suspension containing finafloxacin for treatment of ear infections.

In addition to existing investors such as HeidelbergCapital and Vl Partners, new strategic investors such as Denk Pharma GmbH & Co. KG have taken part in the round. Further details were not disclosed.

“This is a significant milestone in our mission to successfully launch Xtoro, an otic formulation of our antibiotic finafloxacin, in the US and Canada,” said Dr. Andreas Vente, Managing Director of MerLion. “This financing is proof of the high potential of our lead drug and the confidence of our investors in our strategy.”

“We invest in projects and technologies that contribute significantly to patients’ healing,” said Stephan Huber, Managing Director at Denk Pharma. “Xtoro is an FDA-approved product for the treatment of Acute Otitis Externa in children and adults. Its superior, fast acting properties will aid patients considerably in their recovery.”

About Finafloxacin

Finafloxacin is a novel fluoroquinolone antibiotic with best-in-class features. Finafloxacin combines well-known, significant efficacy and resistance-breaking capabilities with an outstanding safety profile. In clinical and pre-clinical settings, the compound has shown a substantially improved therapeutic profile as compared to the existing gold standard and a broad utility in treating many severe infections, including those caused by resistant Gram-negative pathogens. Finafloxacin is available as intravenous, oral, and topical formulation.

Finafloxacin’s superior profile arises from the compound’s unique mode of action, being equally active at physiological pH conditions and in the acidic environments which occur at most bacterial infection sites. Most other antibiotics, including other fluoroquinolones, show decreased activity under acidic tissue conditions, which results in a significant reduction of their overall efficacy.

In addition to the FDA-approved liquid suspension formulation of XTORO™, MerLion has also developed intravenous and oral formulations of finafloxacin with equivalent bioavailability, which may offer physicians various options for in-hospital and out-patient treatment regimens.

The impact of finafloxacin for the treatment of infections caused by the biological intracellular threat agents Burkholderia pseudomallei, Francisella tularensis, Yersinia pestis and other multi-drug resistant (MDR) pathogens of clinical significance are currently being investigated in a joint project with the Defense Science and Technology Laboratory, UK (Dstl).