Xytis Inc., a newly formed drug developer based in Irvine, has raised $24.5 million in a second round of venture financing.
The company is working on drugs to treat what it says are “central nervous system disorders addressing unmet medical needs within large markets.”
Some of those conditions, according to the company, include schizophrenia and brain injuries.
Sanderling Ventures of Palo Alto led the funding. Atlas Venture of Boston and a pair of French venture investors,Ventech and CDC Entreprises Innovation,also took part.
Brain Injury, Schizophrenia
Xytis said it plans to use the money for second- and third-phase clinical trials for chronic brain injury treatment and first- and second-phase trials for schizophrenia.
The company said it also hopes to develop what are called “allosteric modulators” for the central nervous system.
Xytis is a newly forged company created by the combination of Remergent Inc., which was based in Irvine, and Xytis Pharmaceuticals Ltd. of London.
In a release, Werner Tschollar, Xytis’ chief executive, said the combined companies “are highly complementary” and hoped to provide what he called “novel therapeutic programs” for central nervous disorders.
Remergent was started in early 2002 to try and commercialize products licensed from the University of California. Sanderling gave seed funding for Remergent.
Tschollar established Xytis in 2004, with funding from Atlas and CDC. Besides Irvine, Xytis also operates in Britain and Switzerland.
Earlier, Tschollar served as medical director of clinical research for Bristol-Myers Squibb Co. He also was a senior vice president for Novartis Consumer Pharmaceuticals and Nutrition, part of Novartis AG.
A spokesman for Atlas was unable to give details about Xytis’ workforce numbers. Officials with Xytis couldn’t be reached last week.
Xytis also is working on compounds that potentially could be drugs for treating anxiety, schizophrenia, insomnia, epilepsy and drug addiction, according to the company.
