Octarine Bio ApS (“Octarine” or “the company”), a synthetic biology company developing biosynthetic platforms for cannabinoids, psychedelics and their novel improved derivatives, today announced it has extended its seed round financing, closed in November 2020, with an additional $1.2 million USD due to significant demand from new and existing investors, bringing the total amount raised by the company to over $3 million USD.

“Interest in the therapeutic use of cannabinoids and psychedelics has exploded recently, and we’re thrilled to see investors get behind our unique biosynthetic approach to bringing these therapies to market. We’re particularly proud to see significant follow-on investment from our existing investors; for us this is a key validation of the team, technology, and business model” said Octarine CEO Dr Nethaji Gallage. “Octarine has laid out an ambitious R&D plan for this year and we’ve been able to achieve our first set of R&D milestones for Q1. This funding round will allow us to expand our R&D facility and capabilities in Copenhagen and expand the R&D and executive management teams”.

The extended round was led by existing institutional investors Oskare Capital and The Danish State Growth fund (Vækstfonden).

Alexandre OUIMET-STORRS, President and Co-Founder of Oskare Capital stated that “We scouted and first invested in Octarine two years ago and they have made phenomenal progress since then in developing a pipeline of natural and improved cannabinoid and psychedelic drug candidates. These molecules will be key building blocks for the next wave of pharmaceutical grade molecules that target poorly treated psychological and neurological conditions”.

Lene Gerlach, Investment Manager at Vækstfonden stated that “Octarine is a perfect example of how research and innovation from both Copenhagen University and the Danish Technical University of Denmark can become a strong company with a global competitive edge. The Octarine team has been excellent in executing on their development goals and Vækstfonden is very pleased to continue our close partnership with Octarine”.

The company is currently implementing biosynthetic production platforms for a range of natural therapeutic molecules, including psilocybin and DMT, as well as libraries of novel derivatives and expects to have these ready for pre-clinical and clinical development by the end of 2021.

About Octarine

Octarine’s mission is to solve our greatest health challenges by enabling innovative cannabinoid and psychedelic therapeutics. Many neurological and psychological conditions are poorly served by current drugs, leaving physicians, patients, and their families desperately seeking alternative therapies, sometimes illegally. Cannabinoids and psychedelics are poised to offer breakthrough therapies for these debilitating conditions, but to realize the full potential of these molecules, issues with their production and undesirable properties must first be solved.

Octarine is perfecting a biological approach to producing improved & novel cannabinoid and psychedelic molecules with tailored modes of action. Our proprietary technology combines synthetic biology, yeast fermentation and enzymatic derivatization to develop IP protected drug candidates that are validated in pre-clinical models.

Octarine was founded in September 2018 by Dr Nethaji Gallage (CEO) and Dr Nick Milne (CSO) based on foundational research conducted at the University of Copenhagen and the Technical University of Denmark (DTU). Octarine is also an alumnus of the BioInnovation Institute, an initiative run by the Novo Nordisk Foundation.

For more information visit http://www.octarinebio.com

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