IRISH LIFE sciences group Opsona plans to extend its research activities after securing an additional €3.3 million in funding.

The company announced last February that it had raised €18 million in new funding – well in excess of the €10 million it had initially sought.

Now it has disclosed additional funding from the venture capital arm of Swiss pharma giant Roche and Enterprise Ireland. They join Novartis Venture Fund, Fountain Healthcare Partners, Inventages Venture Capital and Seroba-Kernel which had already committed funds to the company.

Opsona said the money would fund its upcoming clinical trials targeting inflammatory diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis, lupus and solid organ transplant rejection and allow it to expand its clinical pipeline. Opsona, founded in 2004 by three immunologists based at Trinity College, specialises in developing auto-immune and inflammatory diseases, targeting toll-like receptors – proteins that activate immune cell responses.

“Roche and Enterprise Ireland came to us and said they wanted to get involved in the funding round,” said founder director Prof Luke O’Neill. “It presented a bit of a dilemma as we had agreed to close the fundraising at €18 million. However, they were offering €3.3 million and that allows us to bring a third product into the development pipeline. Opsona has already identified two products that it believes have potential. Following the Roche investment, it has started looking within its own pipeline and at products owned by other biotech companies to select a third programme.

“There are four options currently on the table, some from smaller biotech firms that might not have the same access to funds,” said Prof O’Neill. “They are all very interesting products and we are evaluating them at the moment.”