For a little known, closely held biotech player, Caprion Pharmaceuticals Inc. is suddenly making big waves in the burgeoning field of proteomics, the latest buzzword in medical research.
The two-year-old Montreal-based company yesterday announced it has privately sold $52.5-million of stock to institutional investors in Canada and the United States, one of the largest private placements ever by a Canadian biotech company.
"Our financial advisors told us that this was the time to take as much money as we could get and not to worry about dilution," Lloyd Segal, president and chief executive officer of Caprion, said in an interview. "Some people were telling us that the financing market for high-tech and biotech could be ugly for the next 12 to 18 months."
Last month, Caprion raised $7.5-million (U.S.) from a unit of Waters Corp., a Milford, Mass.-based supplier of biotech research tools and instruments, to support its proteomic research.
Proteomics is the study of how proteins carry out genetic instructions and make living organisms function properly.
"With $60-million (Canadian)-plus in the bank, we have enough capital to carry us to an [initial public offering]hopefully in 12 to 24 months," Mr. Segal said.
Caprion has developed a unique approach to generating proteomics information by creating so-called cell maps that can pinpoint the subcellular location of proteins.
That could turn out to be an important tool in identifying the differences between normal and disease cells, and could aid drug companies in developing new diagnostic and therapeutic treatments.
"Caprion is the only company I know of that has the ability to locate proteins at the sub-cellular level on a massive scale," said Ezra Lwowski, a biotech analyst with Yorkton Securities Inc., which managed the private placement. "Sub-cellular location of proteins is very important because it tells you what happens where in the cell rather than what theoretically happens."
Mr. Segal said Caprion's first product is an antibody for the abnormal prion protein, which causes Mad Cow Disease and also is associated with the human condition that is now making headlines in Britain and France, Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease.
In August, the company licensed its technology to Idexx Laboratories Inc. of Westbrook, Me., in a collaboration to develop a rapid diagnostic for detecting the disease in live cattle. Current detection methods require brain tissue from slaughtered cattle.
Mr. Segal said the company is in talks with a U.S. pharmaceutical company to license its prion technology for human use and hopes to announce a deal in the first quarter next year.
Caprion also is developing diagnostic tests for Alzheimer's Disease and Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis, commonly known as Lou Gehrig's Disease.