By Allan Maurer

EXCLUSIVE REPORT CHARLOTTEVILLE, VA – Diffusion Pharmaceuticals has closed on more than $1.8 million of a new $5 million raise, according to a regulatory filing. The company is testing treatments to diffuse oxygen to tissue deprived of it. The treatments could help victims of cancer, stroke, heart attacks and other conditions.

The company raised $2.6 million in February from unnamed investors. With the new funds, it has raised about $15 million to date.

Diffusion also received $2.6 million in R&D funding from the Office of Naval Research.

The company revealed the latest funding in a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. SEC filings often tend to lag actual amounts raised.

The filing indicates that $425,000 of the new funds are earmarked to pay executives and directors.

Diffusion CEO David Kalegis tells TechJournal South the company expects to report results from its Phase I/II clinical trial of its lead drug by the first quarter next year.

The company is testing its drug candidate trans sodium crocetinate for peripheral arterial disease, a painful condition affecting 8 million Americans.

“This is an exciting trial for us,” says Kalegis. “We’ve been doing this about 10 years now and we have had fabulous animal results, but everyone said to get traction we needed proof of concept in the human population. We hope this will be that proof.”

The company’s technology has potential applications anytime tissue is deprived of oxygen.

“Oxygen is the most fundamental thing for life,” Kalgis says. “I can’t think of anything that will kill you quicker without it. You can go a while without food and water and shelter, but only minutes without oxygen.”

Diffusion Pharmaceuticals’ pipeline of first-in-class small molecules uses a novel mechanism of action allowing more oxygen to reach oxygen-deprived (hypoxic) tissues in the body.

Potential clinical applications include cancer, critical care uses such as trauma, hemorrhage, stroke, and heart attack, as well as chronic conditions such as peripheral arterial and vascular disease, cardiovascular disease, and respiratory disorders.

In preclinical studies, TSC has been shown to increases the rate of oxygen diffusion by about 30 percent. TSC has been shown in animal models to increase the diffusion of oxygen into hypoxic cancerous tumor tissue, making the cancer more susceptible to radiation therapy and increasing survival.

In addition, animals suffering severe blood loss have a higher rate of survival if treated with TSC.

Online: www.diffusionpharma.com

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