The News

Creabilis Therapeutics Raises €20 Million in a Series A Funding Led by Sofinnova Partners and in Collaboration with NeoMed

06/06/2008

New Funds to Drive Development of Dermatology Pipeline

Ivrea, Italy - 6th June, 2008 - Creabilis Therapeutics SpA, an emerging specialty pharmaceutical company focused on dermatology, today announces that it has raised a total of €20 million in a Series A round of funding. The financing was led by Sofinnova Partners, which was joined in the funding round by NeoMed Management. Representatives of both Sofinnova and NeoMed will be joining the Creabilis Therapeutics' Board following this fund raising.

Creabilis' vision is to discover and develop innovative new medicines to address dermatological diseases and to market these directly to specialist physicians using its own sales force in certain niche indications or to co-market or license where appropriate. The global dermatology market was valued at .2bn in 2005 and is set to grow to over bn over the next five years.

Since its foundation in 2003, Creabilis has established a world-class reputation in dermatology and a rich clinical and pre-clinical pipeline based on a range of proprietary technologies. Today's funding will be used to finance three Phase II clinical trials of Creabilis' most advanced products: CT327 which is being developed for the treatment of psoriasis and dermatitis and CT200 which is being developed for Behcet's Disease. In addition Creabilis will advance its pipeline of pre-clinical dermatology drug candidates which address a wide range of skin diseases.

CT327 is a new chemical entity obtained through the application of Creabilis' proprietary MiniPEGylation approach. It is aimed at treating psoriasis, dermatitis and other conditions linked to an over growth of keratinocytes. CT327 showed strong antiproliferative activity by inhibiting the NGF receptor TrkA.

Alfredo Boni, President and co-founder of Creabilis Therapeutics, said: "We believe this is the first time an Italian start up has been financed by leading international VCs and we are proud to have attracted two experienced life science investors to support our Company. Their support reflects the excellence of our R&D capabilities and our ability to deliver on the vision of becoming a leading specialty pharmaceutical company focused on dermatology."

Graziano Seghezzi, Partner at Sofinnova Partners, commented: "Silvano Fumero, the late co-founder of Creabilis, and Alfredo Boni have created an excellent discovery and development company with a deep pipeline based on a range of technologies and approaches. I look forward to working with the team at Creabilis as the Company takes the next steps towards its goal of building a strong, sustainable business commercializing innovative products for skin disorders."