SOUTH SAN FRANCISCO, Calif., Aug. 3, 2017 -- Meissa Vaccines, a start-up biotechnology company developing vaccines to prevent viral respiratory infections, announced that it has received a seed investment from FundRx, an innovative healthcare & life sciences venture capital platform based in New York City. This investment is intended to help finance the Company to an investigational new drug (IND) filing for its lead asset, a live attenuated RSV vaccine candidate for infants.
"We greatly value FundRx' support and welcome them as an investor in Meissa Vaccines," said Dr. Martin Moore, Meissa's Chief Executive Officer. "During diligence, we were very impressed by their collaborative style and data-driven process."
Gurdane Bhutani, Managing Partner at FundRx, said of Meissa, "We believe Dr. Moore's outstanding work in reverse genetics and infectious disease has the potential to be game-changing, and are excited to support the company in their efforts."
About FundRx
FundRx is a venture capital platform that builds and invests in the next-generation of healthcare and life sciences startups. Our community of hundreds of venture partners – themselves physicians, scientists, and industry executives – contribute their capital, time, and expertise to the FundRx portfolio, providing exceptional hands-on support and guidance to nurture great companies. We take a scientific approach to investing, working with a distributed network of experts to peer-review prospective startups, and are a pioneer in venture capital technology – with a dedicated engineering organization enabling advanced analytics and screening of investments. We are headquartered in New York City, with offices in Chicago and San Francisco. For more information please visit www.fundrx.com.
About Meissa
Meissa Vaccines is focused on the advancement of vaccines for respiratory syncytial virus (RSV, the largest unmet respiratory medical need in pediatrics) and rhinovirus (the leading cause of infectious disease worldwide). The technology is sourced from Dr. Martin Moore's laboratory at Emory University. Dr. Moore, together with Dr. Roderick Tang, a leading developer of viral vaccines, are co-founders of Meissa. They are supported by a team with extensive experience in conducting vaccine clinical trials. Meissa Vaccines is a resident company of Johnson & Johnson Innovation, JLABS in South San Francisco (JLABS @SSF).