Silver Creek Pharmaceuticals Secures up to $20 Million Financing to Advance Smart Growth Factortm Pipeline into the Clinic

SAN FRANCISCO, Feb. 5, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Silver Creek Pharmaceuticals announced today the completion of up to $20 million in financing, with $9 million funded in a first tranche and the remainder to be funded based on satisfaction of specific milestones. Silver Creek will use the proceeds from this financing to advance SGF-1, the company's lead product program targeting tissue repair following ischemic injury. Silver Creek's investors include individuals who have been leaders at Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan, and Barclays Bank. Associated with the financing, Mark Agne, retired partner and former Head of the Japan Securities Division of Goldman Sachs, has joined Silver Creek's Board of Directors.

The company also announced the appointment of Chris White as Chief Operating Officer. A 30-year biopharmaceutical industry veteran, Mr. White was most recently Chief Business Officer at Entasis Therapeutics, where he led commercial planning, business development, and fundraising. Prior to Entasis, Mr. White held the position of Chief Business Officer at AMAG Pharmaceuticals, where he established several successful partnerships, including a licensing, development, and commercialization agreement with Takeda valued at up to $280 million. Mr. White also expanded AMAG's commercial portfolio by in-licensing oral mucositis product, MuGard®, from Access Pharmaceuticals.

"This financing is an important validation of the therapeutic and commercial promise of our Smart Growth Factortm platform as we work to achieve several significant anticipated milestones in our SGF-1 program in the coming months," said Mr. White. "Armed with sufficient capital and a robust preclinical data package, Silver Creek is positioned to advance novel growth factor therapeutics into the clinic that repair and regenerate tissue following acute or chronic injury."

"We are extremely excited about Silver Creek's focus on indications for which there are no available therapies, in which growth factor signaling plays a critical role in promoting cell and tissue repair," said Silver Creek Chairman Michael Fairbanks.

"Silver Creek's SGF-1 program has the potential to change treatment options for patients with acute myocardial infarction, acute kidney injury, and traumatic brain injury," said Jim Marks, MD, PhD, Silver Creek board member and Chief of Staff, Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital and Trauma Center.

Silver Creek also announced the appointment of Ross Breckenridge as Chief Medical Officer. A recognized leader in cardiovascular medicine, Dr. Breckenridge has specific expertise on the heart's response to low levels of oxygen and identifying novel therapeutic targets for heart disease. Since 2016, Dr. Breckenridge has led development of Silver Creek's technology platform and initial pipeline of product candidates.

About Smart Growth Factortm Therapeutics
Growth factor therapies have historically been hindered by short half-lives that curtail their exposure, limit accumulation in target tissue, and result in adverse off-target effects. Silver Creek applies computational design and systems modeling to engineer Smart Growth Factortm (SGF) therapeutics. SGFs are designed to unlock the therapeutic potential of growth factors by targeting and prolonging growth factor signaling at the site of tissue damage, potentially protecting tissue with minimal impact on healthy cells and tissues.

Silver Creek is pursuing drug development programs for a range of diseases in which growth factor signaling plays a critical role in promoting cell and tissue rescue following acute or chronic injury. The company's lead clinical development candidate is SGF-1, a Smart Growth Factortm that selectively accumulates in tissue where apoptosis (programmed cell death) is occurring. In preclinical in vivo studies, SGF-1 was highly selective for tissue where apoptosis occurs and demonstrated reduced cardiac cell death following ischemia reperfusion (I/R) injury, proof of concept in models of acute myocardial infarction (AMI), and potential activity in kidney and brain injury. Silver Creek is currently completing IND-enabling studies of SGF-1 and expects to initiate clinical trials in 2018.

About Silver Creek Pharmaceuticals (www.silvercreekpharma.com)
Silver Creek is a biotechnology company pioneering a new class of Smart Growth Factortm (SGF) medicines that are designed to promote repair and regeneration of functional tissues and organs by targeting and prolonging activation of growth factor repair signaling selectively in damaged tissue. The company's lead program, SGF-1, is in pre-IND development with the potential to repair and regenerate tissue damaged by acute myocardial infarction (AMI), acute kidney injury (AKI), and traumatic brain injury (TBI).

Contact:
Mary Moynihan
M2Friend Biocommunications
802-951-9600 
[email protected]

SOURCE Silver Creek Pharmaceuticals