ProThera Biologics lands $750K from Slater, NIH

By Patrick Anderson
PBN Staff Writer
Twitter: @andersonpbn

PROVIDENCE – East Providence biomedical company ProThera Biologics LLC, has received $750,000 in new funding from the National Institutes of Health and Slater Technology Fund, Slater announced Wednesday.

The new funding is made up of a $500,000 federal Small Business Innovation Research program grant from the NIH and a $250,000 equity investment from Slater, a state-backed Rhode Island venture capital firm.

Previously, Slater invested $500,000 in ProThera in 2008 and helped the company start up with a $100,000 research grant.

The capital will allow ProThera to “scale up development of its inter-alpha inhibitor proteins for both biodefense and clinical programs,” a news release announcing the funding said.

ProThera was spun out of the research labs of Lifespan in 2002 by Dr. Yow-Pin Lim and Douglas Hixson, Rhode Island Hospital scientists affiliated with Brown University’s Warren Alpert Medical School.

The company has developed treatments for life-threatening conditions resulting from infection and severe systematic inflation using naturally occurring serine protease inhibitors.

As part of the new investment, Slater Venture Partner Scott Schorer has been placed on the ProThera board of directors.