Atlanta-based pharmaceutical company Inhibikase Therapeutics Inc. (Nasdaq: IKT) has raised $10 million for development of treatments for Parkinson’s Disease and chronic myelogenous leukemia.
The investment included a $4.2 million in a private investment in public equity (PIPE) deal from New York-based Armistice Capital and $5.2 million from a confidentially marketed registered direct offering, said president and CEO Milton Werner. The remaining funds came from banking fees and commissions.
Funds from the investment will advance clinical trial work for drugs called IkT-148009 (for neurodegenerative diseases) and IkT-001Pro (for chronic myelogenous leukemia). IkT-148009 is in Phase 2a of clinical trials. It has halted and reversed Parkinson’s disease in animal models that mimic the human disease during testing, Werner said.
“Animal model outcomes have been unprecedented,” said Werner in an email, referring to IkT-148009. “We can halt disease progress, reverse functional loss and clear the underlying protein pathology linked to the disease.”
Inhibikase expects to learn the "potential clinical benefit” of the drugs within the next two years.
Werner founded the company’s predecessor, Inhibikase Therapeutics LLC, in 2008 as an Atlanta startup with financial backing from the Georgia Research Alliance. It has received economic development grants and loans of nearly half a million dollars through the Georgia Research Alliance.
The company develops therapeutics for neurodegenerative diseases and other related disorders. Another of the company’s product candidates is IkT-01427, which is designed to block the causative virus of Progressive Multifocal Leukoencephalopathy from replicating in the body.
The company announced it had closed its initial public offering around two years ago with a raise of $18 million. Its common stock began trading on the Nasdaq Capital Market on December 23, 2020. As of Feb. 8, its stock price stood at $0.72 (-5.33%).
Inhibikase has an Atlanta office at 3350 Riverwood Parkway in Cumberland, along with an office in Lexington, Massachusetts. It has a total of eight employees and five consultants.
