It's been over six months since New Mexico Inno picked out 10 startups in the state that we thought were primed for big things in 2023. Since we're now over halfway through the year, New Mexico Inno wanted to follow up with those startups to see how things are going and if our January predictions were accurate.
Over the coming weeks, New Mexico Inno will roll out stories checking in with our 2023 Startups to Watch. Next up is TNeuroPharma, an Albuquerque life science startup with some new milestone partnerships on the horizon.
Click here to see the full list of New Mexico Inno's 2023 Startups to Watch.
Almost a year since landing a patent for its method of detecting T-cells in patients to diagnose and treat Alzheimer's disease, TNeuroPharma is in the process of lining up some partnerships that could be "a really huge deal" for the Albuquerque life science startup, its CEO told Albuquerque Business First.
TNeuroPharma has been developing that patented diagnostic method since 2018, when CEO Kristina Trujillo, Ph.D., and Christopher Wheeler, Ph.D., the startup's chief science officer who originally devised the method while working at Cedar-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, founded the startup. It's in the clinical trial phase for that method, and it hopes to partner with a clinic for a trial later this year, Trujillo said.
But to do that the startup needs more money. It's still raising funds as part of a seed financing round and plans to open a larger Series A round — an investment stage for growing startups past seed funding — later this month with a $4 million target. Additional funds raised through the seed round would be folded into the Series A round, Trujillo said.
Money raised would go toward its next clinical trial — and also toward expanding co-development partnerships with large companies. Trujillo said the startup has been talking with one large diagnostic company about co-development opportunities but has a non-disclosure agreement with that company regarding that work.
"If this co-development with a larger diagnostic [company] goes through, that's going to be a really huge deal and a really big push for us," she said.
Besides these pending developments — the Series A round and co-development partnerships — Trujillo said the startup has found work with a pair of programs through the University of Calgary in Alberta, Canada. One of those is the university's UCeed program, which falls under Innovate Calgary, a business incubator through the university; the other is the Alberta Centre for Advanced Diagnostics.
Why go all the way up to Canada for these startup development-focused programs? It's easier to implement diagnostics in Canada than it is in the U.S., Trujillo said. Instead of diagnostic tests having to be approved through individual providers, she said in Canada the approval process is run through one centralized body.
"That's why we're looking to have the Canada system evaluate our diagnostic, give a general recommendation for at least Alberta and then use that as a proof of concept to bring it down to the [United] States," Trujillo said.
The startup hopes to have more announcements regarding other partnerships and clinical trials in the coming months.
