ROCK on, ROCK off: Amakem gets €18 million to address rho kinase side-effect problem

Amakem, the Belgian ophthalmology start-up spun out from Devgen early in 2010, has secured an €18 million series A financing to take its lead drug candidate to clinical proof of concept. The firm is working on a medicinal chemistry "trick" to enable it to develop drugs which inhibit Rho Kinase (ROCK) without causing the unwanted side-effects that have tended to interfere with the development of such compounds.

Amakem's founding concept is its Localized Drug Action platform, through which it can tweak compounds that target kinases to ensure...