AmacaThera, a Toronto-based company commercializing hydrogel-based drug delivery platforms, has raised $3.25 million CAD in seed financing from Sprout BioVentures, Viva Biotech, and Grey Sky Venture Partners.
AmacaThera’s founding technology was discovered at the University of Toronto by Dr. Molly Shoichet, a leading expert on polymer design. AmacaThera envisions their proprietary technology to allow sustained and controllable release of diverse therapeutic agents from injectable, biocompatible hydrogels. Their first product, AMT-143, targets superior post-operative pain control with the goal of eliminating opioid use following surgery. The funding raised in this round will be used to advance AmacaThera’s drug delivery platform technology through Phase I clinical proof-of-concept.
Venture partner Mike Serrano-Wu shared his excitement to work with AmacaThera: “We jumped at the chance to work with Molly and Mike and break open the field of hydrogel-encapsulated therapeutics. The unique inverse thermal gelling property of AMT-143 will lead to multiple opportunities for the AmacaThera platform to significantly improve patient care.”