Moncton’s Soricimed Biopharma has raised a $200,000 follow-on investment from the New Brunswick Innovation Foundation as it continues research and development work on its treatment for pancreatic cancer.

NBIF previously invested $175,000 in Soricimed in 2020, and in a press release said the prospective drugmaker has raised a combined $26 million of equity and non-dilutive financing since it began..

Soricimed was founded in 2005 by Mount Allison professor Jack Stewart – now the Chairman and Chief Scientific Officer – after he discovered interesting medical properties in the saliva of the northern short-tailed shrew, a mole-like animal native to Atlantic Canada. The company's SOR-C13 drug is in the process of undergoing phase one clinical trials, the first step in testing the compound on humans, at the MD Anderson Cancer Center in Texas.

“We are pleased to continue support of Soricimed’s development of SOR-C13, which has the potential to address significant unmet medical needs in a very large market,” said NBIF Senior Investment Manager Peter Goggin.

“In addition, we see a significant opportunity for SOR-C13 because its development is a high priority as it may benefit so many patients.”

The company expects its treatment to work best on cancers that produce solid tumours, such as ovarian cancer, as opposed to the cancer being spread among normal tissue.