Drug developer Anagin, a company launched by two Indiana University scientists through the aid of IURTC’s Spin Up program, won BioCrossroads’ third annual New Venture Competition on Tuesday.
The contest, held in tandem with the 2014 Indiana Life Sciences Summit at the JW Marriott hotel in Indianapolis, awards $25,000 to the first-place winner. The top prize also includes business planning and early strategic support from the Indiana Seed Fund II, plus the chance for additional exposure before the fund’s investment committee.
Co-founded by Anantha Shekhar and Yvonne Lai, Anagin is developing a first-of-its-kind drug that battles post-traumatic stress disorder, but without the debilitating side effects that often come with current treatments. Anagin recently received a $692,706 Phase I Small Business Innovation Research grant from the National Institutes of Health. The company is ramping up its own research and development, and preparing to enter collaborations with Indiana University and Northeastern University-Boston.
“Our team is extremely pleased to win such an honor, especially given the rigorous evaluation process and the promise held by the other finalist companies as well,” said Shekhar, a professor of psychiatry, pharmacology and neurobiology at the IU School of Medicine in Indianapolis and director of the Indiana Clinical and Translational Sciences Institute. Lai is a senior scientist with IU’s Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences in Bloomington,
BioCrossroads is an Indianapolis-based, public-private collaboration that provides money and support to budding life-science businesses in Indiana. Since 2012, the competition has awarded more than $120,000 to nine startups that attracted nearly $5 million in subsequent funding.
Leave a Reply