The Pre-Seed Capital Fund, a collaborative among Michigan's 12 SmartZones and the Michigan Economic Development (MEDC), recently put $200,000 into Lansing-based AFID Therapeutics.
AFID Therapeutics develops proprietary chemical compounds that are used by pharmaceutical chemistry and drug discovery and development companies to create new medicines. The compounds target diseases such as Alzheimer’s and other neurological disorders.
AFID Therapeutics recently launched an anti-viral campaign with new chemical compounds that can block the spread of influenza viruses. It needs funds to help get the compounds to market.
“We are going to take care of regulatory aspects of it and do some test formulations and make some product prototypes, and this will help,” says Rawle Hollingsworth, who started AFID Therapeutics in 2003.
“The fund’s investment in AFID is a testament to the tremendous wealth of technology and entrepreneurship we have here in the Greater Lansing region,” says Matt Dugener, president and CEO of LEAP (Lansing Economic Area Partnership).
XG Sciences is the only other Mid-Michigan start-up that’s received funds from the Michigan Pre-Seed Capital Fund, which is designed to support high-tech start-up companies with early-stage capital. Both companies were launched using technology licensed from Michigan State University.
AFID Therapeutics has 300 to 400 products on the market currently, and plans to continue expanding. Hollingsworth has already added staff and plans to add more depending on the company’s workload.
Source: Patty Mallet, LEAP
Ivy Hughes, development news editor, can be reached here.
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