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Print Edition StoriesWednesday, January 6, 2010
Acton Pharma completes $15M first funding round
By Mass High Tech staff
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Marlborough drug developer Acton Pharmaceuticals Inc. has closed a $15 million Series A round of funding, led by Sequoia Capital.
As part of the financing, Scott Carter, a partner at Sequoia Capital, will join the board of directors at Acton.
Concurrent with its funding, the company also announced a licensing agreement with Forest Laboratories Inc. related to the latter firm’s Aerospan inhalation aerosol, an asthma inhaler intended to be safer for the environment. No financial terms of the licensing deal were released, but Acton plans to commercialize the FDA-approved inhaler next year in the U.S., once it meets particular unnamed manufacturing requirements. Acton will be responsible for developing, marketing and commercializing Aerospan and will target the product for allergists, pulmonologists and asthma specialists.
Acton Pharmaceuticals was founded in 2008 by Daniel Kreisler and John Simon. Kreisler, who worked for Forest Laboratories for 16 years, most recently co-founded and served as vice president of business development at JDS Pharmaceuticals. Simon, also a long-time Forest Laboratories veteran, has served most recently as vice president of Sepracor Inc.
Aerospan, an inhaled corticosteroid, is made with “ozone-friendly HFA propellant” and includes a spacer device intended to ease inhalation of medicine to the lung.
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