MUSC Spinoff Spins Gold

A Charleston-based biotech spinoff from the Medical University of South Carolina has received millions of dollars in financing that the company will use to begin clinical drug trials.

Argolyn Bioscience Inc. received $15.8 million to help develop drugs based on peptides, a more effective means of drug delivery. The company is working on medications to treat psychosis, pain and other disorders. The financing was led by investors Intersouth Partners of Durham, N.C., and Philadelphia-based Quaker BioVentures, with Amgen Ventures also participating. It marks Argolyn's first institutional financing.

Argolyn was founded in 2002 based on technology developed at MUSC's Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences by Dr. Thomas A. Dix, Argolyn's founding scientist and chief scientific officer. Argolyn's name is derived from the amino acids arginine and lysine, two of the base components the company modifies to produce peptide-based drugs.

Pearce Gilbert, the company's chief executive, said the financing will help move Argolyn's technology forward and allow the firm to hire competitively. It will raise the company's profile and help it develop more effective medicines, he said. "We hope it'll be a big event for South Carolina and the Lowcountry," Gilbert said Monday. "It'll put us on the map."

As part of the deal, Dennis Dougherty of Intersouth Partners and Geeta Vemuri of Quaker BioVentures will join an expanded five-member board of directors of the privately held firm. "Argolyn is tackling some very large markets to solve medical needs," Vemuri said in a statement. "Coupled with the company's experienced advisers and sound technology, we are very excited about this investment."

While Charleston may not yet be the hotbed for biotech that the Raleigh-Durham area is in North Carolina, this round of financing is not insignificant, said David Pearson, a partner in Intersouth. While other areas around the country may see a greater level of financing because of the number of companies in those markets, an award of $16 million still would be considered "a significant infusion of cash," Pearson said. "This would be considered a good round of financing in any of the bio hotspots," he said.