InterAx Biotech AG has closed a successful financing round, having raised 3 million Swiss francs. The investment round was led by venture capital firm Falcon III Ventures and investiere.ch. InterAx Biotech will use the new funds to accelerate commercialization of its technology platform.
A spin-off of the Federal Institute of Technology (ETH) in Zurich and the Paul Scherrer Institute (PSI), InterAx Biotech has developed a platform that helps in the discovery of new drugs, with a specific focus on G protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs). These receptors transfer the signals of drug from the outside of the cell to the inside of the cell, where they then trigger reactions.
Of the 800 known GPCRs, around 370 are of interest as docking sites for medications. Until now, however, only one in six of these can be used for pharmacological purposes, explains ETH Zurich. InterAx Biotech’s biosensor and systems biology platform is meant to increase the speed and accuracy of testing if and how a particular drug affects a certain GPCR.
