Complexa Raises $13 Million For Kidney Disease Trials

Complexa, which is a Pittsburgh based biopharmaceutical company, has announced that it has raised $13 million in order to fund chronic kidney disease trials. The company will be using the funds to carry out clinical research on its lead compound, CXA-10 in two different formulations for human testing. One of the formulations is administered orally while the other formulation is administered intravenously. The trials will be focused on treating kidney damage caused by medical imaging dye injections.

This funding round was the second for Complexa, which had recently raised about $8 million from different venture capital investors. Complexa used that $8 million in order to license and develop molecules that were discovered and patented by a research team from the University of Pittsburgh.

The most recent funding round was led by Jafco Life Science Investment, which is a division of the Jafco Co., a Japanese private equity firm. Jafco has said that there is already “great interest” in the research that Complexa will be completing in the pharmaceutical community. Other investors involved in the round included Scientific Health Development, Wistar Morris Foundation, and Upstart. With the funding in place, it is expected that Phase 1 stage trials will begin shortly.

Data from the CDC indicates that chronic kidney disease afflicts nearly 20 million people. The CXA-10 compound developed by Complexa works by blocking inflammatory pathways, in addition to activating the body’s own protective mechanisms against inflammation. Researchers believe that CXA-10 will be used to treat acute kidney injuries which were caused by inflammatory reactions to dye injections related to medical imaging. This drug could become especially important as researcher believe the number of kidney injuries could increase as the use of intravenous contrast to enhance computed tomography imaging has increased over the past several years. Industry analysts also note that Complexa also thinks that the drug could have further uses beyond kidney treatments, specifically in neurodegenerative and fibrotic-related therapeutic areas.