Addex Pharmaceuticals, the Central Nervous System (CNS) drug discovery and development company announced the closing of a CHF 50.5 million (US$39 million, €33 million) Series B venture capital funding, the largest to date in Europe.

Investors include TVM Techno Venture Management - who led the round, PolyTechnos Venture-Partners, Bio One Capital Pte Ltd, Vinci Capital - Renaissance PME, Initiative Capital, Fulcrum Pharma Development Ltd, and returning lead investors from the Series A Index Ventures and Sofinnova Partners. Addex will use these funds to advance its portfolio of clinical and pre-clinical compounds. Since its founding in May 2002, the company has secured more than CHF 66 million in venture capital funding.

Vincent Mutel, CEO of Addex, commented, "We are delighted to have successfully completed this financing round and view the support of both our new and current investors as a strong endorsement of the team, our strategy and technology. We are now looking forward to developing and commercializing our product portfolio."

Addex' clinical pipeline includes a dopamine D1-selective antagonist which will begin a Phase IIa study for smoking cessation in the US. Addex has developed a pre-clinical pipeline of proprietary compounds that modulate glutamatergic targets in the CNS. This new class of compounds are expected to have greater selectivity, superior drug-ability and in-built safety, giving Addex a significant competitive advantage in the treatment of schizophrenia, anxiety and Alzheimer's disease.

Richard Rimer, Partner at Index Ventures, commented, "at the time of the company's formation, this was just a concept in a business plan - two years later the area has been validated as a major hot-spot for Pharma and Vincent's team are way ahead of the game".

Alexandra Goll, General Partner at TVM, added that "Addex has a unique approach to discovery and development of highly innovative CNS drugs that have already attracted a lot of interest from the Pharma industry".

"In less than two years, Addex has demonstrated its ability to rapidly develop a portfolio of unique compounds which have the potential to revolutionize the treatment of a number of major CNS disorders," said Antoine Papiernik, Managing Partner of Sofinnova Partners.