2015 Economic Impact - By the Numbers
OCIB's economic impact has surpassed $1.9 billion.
Read the full report
Industry News
Oklahoma City Company's Seed Funding Pushes Forward Efforts on Medications
NewsOk.com. June 16, 2009
Oklahoma City-based Selexys Pharmaceuticals recently closed on a seed funding round of $3.5 million.
The funding includes a combined $1 million from the Oklahoma Seed Capital Fund and the Oklahoma Life Sciences Fund. The remaining $2.5 million came from a group of private angel investors.
Selexys Chief Executive Scott Rollins said the funding will allow the company to move forward in the development process with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration of the two drug programs, one targeting sickle cell anemia and the other Crohn’s disease. "These funds will allow Selexys to advance both of those programs to the Investigational New Drug filing stage with the FDA,” Rollins said. "That will allow us to move into human clinical trials.”
Co-development deal
Selexys has contracted with Oklahoma City-based Cytovance Biologics to manufacture the drugs Selexys is developing. Like Selexys, Cytovance Biologics is based on the Presbyterian Health Foundation Research Park campus.
"We’re trying to keep as much of this money in the state of Oklahoma as we can,” Rollins said. "All the R&D, all the research occurs here, we will try to keep as much of the development as possible here and all the manufacturing will be done in Oklahoma. Right now we are building a laboratory with Cytovance that is a co-development deal. We are focused on building the necessary infrastructure in Oklahoma to support the growth of Selexys and other similar biotechnology companies.”
About the fund
The Oklahoma Seed Capital Fund is managed by i2E Inc. and funded by legislative appropriation through the Oklahoma Center for the Advancement of Science and Technology (OCAST).
Earlier this year, Selexys was awarded a $3.2 million Small Business Innovation Research grant and also has received $300,000 in Oklahoma Applied Research Support from OCAST.
In total, Selexys has secured $7 million in grants and seed funding to move its drug programs forward.