Start-up drug company attracts $500,000 in funding

0 Comments | Philadelphia Inquirer, The, May, 2006 | by Linda Loyd

A Spring House start-up that is developing non-antibiotic therapies for gastrointestinal diseases has received a $500,000 investment from BioAdvance, the Philadelphia region's life-sciences "greenhouse."

Midway Pharmaceuticals is a biopharmaceutical company focusing on drugs for GI diseases, including Crohn's, ulcerative colitis and irritable bowel syndrome.

Midway's experimental compound, the polymer MDY-1001, inhibits bacteria in the GI tract and potentially could create non-antibiotic, non-immunosuppressive therapies to treat a variety of GI disorders. The technology stemmed from discoveries at the University of Chicago.

Rifat Pamukcu, the company's chief executive officer, was formerly a co-founder and chief scientific officer of Cell Pathways Inc. in...