DURHAM – Icagen a pharmaceutical development company, continues to raise capital.
The firm, which raised $2 million earlier this year and received an $11 million grant from the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation, has closed on $500,000 in a new round of debt financing.
Four investors participated, according to an SEC filing.
Icagan said it wants to raise another $1 million.
Icagen provides research and drug discovery and development services to pharmaceutical and biotechnology services.
Founded in 2003, the company provides research in neuroscience, ion transfer, transporter, muscle biology and rare disease targets, among other areas.
The Durham-based company acts a lead generator to pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies for potential drug candidates and provides initial research, development and data.
Icagen has been located in Durham since its founding in 1992. Formerly a small publicly traded company developing drugs to treat epilepsy and sickle-cell disease, among others, Icagen was purchased by Pfizer in 2011.
The new subsidiary continued operations at its Durham site under the Pfizer brand until it was purchased in July 2015 by Cambridge, Massachusetts drug developer XRpro Sciences. XRpro then changed its own name — to Icagen. And it still has drug development agreements with Pfizer.
Pfizer bought Icagen for some $56 million.
Icagen is led by President and Chief Executive Officer Richard Cunningham, who has worked for 20 years in the biopharmaceutical industry.
Cunningham has been with the company since 2015. Prior to Icagen, he was the president and chief executive officer of XRPro Sciences.
(North Carolina Business News Wire contributed to this report.)
