Rezolute Inc. (RZLT)

[hogfan2]

Colorado Roundup: AntriaBio Raises $7M,

Michael Davidson1/9/15Follow @MichaelXBD

A biotech startup chases the $10 billion market for diabetes treatments, and Artifact Uprising is snapped up by another photography startup.

AntriaBio raises $7 million, clears hurdle. Biopharmaceutical company AntriaBio announced this week it has raised about $7 million in a private placement. The company develops extended release therapies, and currently is at work on a form of insulin that people with type 1 and type 2 diabetes could inject once a week.

AntriaBio believes the addressable market for its diabetes drug could be as high as $10 billion.

That drug, AB101, is going through pre-clinical trials in animals. AntriaBio also announced this week it had passed a series of in vitro and multi-species animal studies testing the “receptor pharmacology, pharmacokinetics, and pharmacodynamics” of the drug. The company is conducting toxicology studies that would be the next step before clinical studies in patients with type 1 diabetes. AntriaBio would like to start that trial this year.

The new investment will be used to fund the initiation of phase 1 clinical studies, a press release said. AntriaBio raised more then $18 million through equity financings in 2014, the company also said.

AntriaBio conducts its research, development, and manufacturing in Louisville, which is outside Boulder. The company is headquartered in Menlo Park, CA, but everyone except its CEO works out of Louisville.