COPENHAGEN, Denmark (PRWEB) March 11, 2020
Today, Octarine Bio IVS, a synthetic biology company developing functionally superior cannabinoid and psychedelic tryptamine derivatives, announced that the company has received funding from Vækstfonden. Vækstfonden is the Danish State's investment fund whose mission is to create a return on investment by contributing to the development of the Danish ecosystem.
“We’re thrilled to be backed by the Danish State's investment fund, Vækstfonden. This really gives a quality stamp on our technology, business plan and team. The funding will allow us to rapidly expand our R&D,” says Nethaji Gallage, CEO of Octarine.
Octarine’s mission is to harness synthetic biology to develop functionally superior cannabinoid and psychedelic tryptamine derivatives to improve the health and well-being of people worldwide. Natural cannabinoids suffer limitations as therapeutics due to inherent issues such as insolubility, psycho-activity, chemical instability and low bioavailability. Octarine has developed in-cell enzymatic platforms to expand the chemical diversity of cannabinoids, allowing the production of superior molecules with improved chemical and pharmacokinetic properties.
Psilocybin and other psychedelic tryptamine derivatives are gaining momentum as breakthrough therapies for several neurological and psychological disorders. Development of this unique class of molecules is hindered, however, by limited access to a reliable and cost-effective supply. Octarine’s biosynthetic platform provides scalable and cost-effective production of a range of natural and novel tryptamine derivatives for application as pharmaceutical drugs.
“We are very excited to support Octarine on their journey towards growth and scaling of their technology. Octarine is working in one of the promising areas of biotechnology, synthetic biology. The company’s unique fermentation platform enables production of active compounds from plants in a very sustainable manner. This is an important aspect for Vækstfonden, as we are continuously looking for green technologies,” says Lene Gerlach, investment manager, Vækstfonden. "The diversity of the team and the fact that the company is a university spin-out have also played a significant role for our decision to invest.”
For more information, visit http://www.octarinebio.com.
