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SERCA Pharmaceuticals raised NOK 7.9 million this summer through a private placement in which Inven2 and Sarsia Seed were the biggest investors. Combined with funding from the Research Council of Norway’s FORNY programme, the company has now started preparing for clinical trials of its heart attack (myocardial infarction (MI)) treatment.

The start-up company was established in 2018, and entered into a unique agreement with Indian pharmaceuticals company Cadila Pharmaceuticals in January 2019. The agreement concerns the development of new and better treatment for heart attack patients.

The company raised NOK 7.9 million through an issue in summer 2019. The company has also received around NOK 5 million in funding from the Research Council of Norway’s FORNY programme. The main shareholders in SERCA Pharmaceuticals are now Inven2, Sarsia Seed and a number of private investors.

‘We are delighted to have helped get SERCA off the ground quickly following the formation of the company,’ says Ole Kristian Hjelstuen, CEO of Inven2.

‘SERCA Pharmaceuticals is based on ground-breaking Norwegian research. It’s very pleasing to land such a good agreement with a major pharmaceutical company just months after the company was established,’ says Kristin Sandereid, Executive Fund & Business Developer in Inven2.

SERCA Pharmaceuticals is set to develop a pharmacological treatment for damage arising from the treatment of heart attacks.

 

About SERCA Pharmaceuticals

SERCA Pharmaceuticals AS was established in 2018 on the basis of preclinical research on a potential pharmacological treatment for damage arising from the treatment of heart attacks. The research behind the company has been conducted over the past 20 years by Professor Kjetil Taskén’s research group at the University of Oslo.

General manager of the company is Kjetil Hestdal, former CEO of Photocure for many years, who has experience of taking a product from the preclinical stage to the market.

SERCA Pharmaceuticals is set to develop pharmacological treatment for damage arising from the treatment of heart attacks.