Isis Biopolymer gets $3M for trials, R&D

PROVIDENCE – Medical device firm Isis Biopolymer Inc. said Friday its investors put another $3 million into the company last month to fund clinical trials, manufacturing, and research and development.

The 26 investors who participated in the equity funding round were from the same group of 34 who previously had put $4 million into the company starting in July 2008, Shawna P. Gvazdauskas, Isis’ chief commercial officer, told Providence Business News.

“The recent funding reflects confidence in Isis Biopolymer by investors,” Emma A. Durand, the company’s chief executive officer and chief technology officer, said in an e-mail.

The company also raised $500,000 in 2007, according to Securities & Exchange Commission filings.

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Isis Biopolymer has developed the IsisIQ, a programmable, multi-dose drug patch that resembles a Band-Aid and delivers drug treatments.

The new money will be used to finance the patch’s manufacturing, which is already under way in Providence, as well as research and clinical studies for the company’s partners in the pharmaceutical industry.

The company plans to undertake tests of IsisIQ’s effectiveness on animals at Lifespan Corp. research facilities. The studies will be led by Dr. Bruce M. Becker, an attending physician at Rhode Island Hospital and a professor at Brown University’s Warren Alpert Medical School.

The $3 million investment was registered with the SEC on Wednesday and first reported by Mass High Tech. Isis also reported annual revenue of between $1 and $1 million.

Isis, which was founded in 2006 and started out in Warwick, opened a new headquarters in Providence’s Jewelry District late last year at a ribbon-cutting attended by Mayor David N. Cicilline, among others. The office is owned by Brown and is across the street from where Brown is planning to build its new medical school building.

The company listed six directors in its SEC filing: Marcia Hooper of Dover, Mass.; David Poor of New York City; Edward Iannuccilli of Bristol; Harry Martin of Providence; Dr. Joseph Amaral of Cumberland; and Arthur Gosnell of Providence.

Additional information is available at isisbiopolymer.com.

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