MicuRx Pharmaceuticals Completes $10 Million Series a Financing

MicuRx Pharmaceuticals, Inc., a privately-held biopharmaceutical company recently announced the completion of its Series A financing with a $10 million investment from Morningside Group.

MicuRx discovers and develops advanced anti-infective drugs with improved pharmacological profiles by making proprietary modifications to clinically validated antibiotic classes. The company was founded by Zhengyu Yuan, Ph.D. and Mike Gordeev, Ph.D., former senior vice president of research and vice president of chemistry, respectively, at Vicuron Pharmaceuticals, Inc.

“By developing superior next-generation antimicrobial drugs, MicuRx has the potential to improve the current antimicrobial drug therapy, including the increasing global problem of the antibiotic resistance,” commented George Ka Ki Chang of Morningside.

“The extensive antibiotic research and development experience of the management team and an exceptional drug discovery portfolio, position MicuRx for success in the years to come,” added Rachel Gong of Morningside. Both Chang and Gong are members of the MicuRx board of directors.

“We are very pleased to attract such a high-quality investor in our first round of financing,” said Zhengyu Yuan, Ph.D., president and chief executive officer of MicuRx Pharmaceuticals, Inc. “Morningside’s extensive global network, particularly their expertise and infrastructure in Asia, provide additional benefit to our operation.”

“MicuRx has established a strong pipeline of research projects targeting optimization of validated antibiotic classes such as protein synthesis inhibitors,” commented Mike Gordeev, Ph.D., executive vice president and chief scientific officer of MicuRx. “We are aggressively moving forward to implement our proprietary approach and expect to identify our first development candidates with significantly improved therapeutic potential on an accelerated timeline.”

Morningside Group (www.morningside.com) is a diversified investment group founded in 1986 by the Chan family of Hong Kong. It is engaged primarily in private equity and venture capital investments. The group has investments in North America, Europe, across Asia-Pacific, and since 1992, in Mainland China. Morningside Group was one of the earliest institutional investors in China’s internet industry and in recent years has been an active investor in China’s emerging biotechnology sector. MicuRx Pharmaceuticals, Inc.

MicuRx is discovering and developing next-generation antibacterial and antifungal products. By making specific modifications to validated antibiotics, MicuRx intends to improve overall pharmacological properties of antimicrobial drugs in order to overcome antibiotic resistance, increase the antibacterial spectrum, improve the dosing regimen, or reduce adverse side effects. The company has research and development facilities in the San Francisco Bay Area and ZhangJiang High-Tech Park near Shanghai, China.

For more information, please visit www.micurx.com