RDD Pharma, a leader in developing treatments for lower gastro-intestinal disorders, has raised $9.5M in Series B funding, including $6Mfrom two new investors, Pharmascience, Inc. and an international life science fund, as well as existing investors OrbiMed and Capital Point. Proceeds will be used to advance programs globally in anal fissure, fecal incontinence, radiation colitis/proctitis and pruritus ani. "We are pleased to have two new investor groups join OrbiMed and our other investors to further fund clinical studies of products with large unmet needs in anorectal disease," said RDD Pharma's CEO, Jason Laufer.

Over the past several years, RDD Pharma has advanced two products into clinical trials and this funding will enable these programs to progress globally. RDD-1219 is currently in a Phase III registration trial in Europe for treatment of chronic anal fissure. A Phase 2a study with RDD-0315 for fecal incontinence in patients with spinal cord injury has been completed. Based on these results, RDD was been awarded a US Department of Defense grant to advance the spinal cord injury program. In June of this year, the European Medicines Agency granted Orphan Status to this program.

In parallel with the financing, RDD Pharma has licensed the Canadian rights to its anal fissure product to Pendopharm, a division of Pharmascience Inc.

About RDD Pharma

RDD Pharma is a privately held specialty pharma company focused on fast-track development and commercialization of innovative therapeutics for anorectal diseases and lower-gastrointestinal tract disorders. The company has two clinical stage products which serve significant unmet needs: RDD-1219 for chronic anal fissure, currently enrolling patients in a multicenter European Phase 3 study, with 300 patients already enrolled and RDD-0315 for fecal incontinence, an indication for which there are no approved Rx products. Two pre-clinical assets are also in development for pruritis ani and radiation colitis/proctitis.

About Pharmascience Inc.

Established in 1983, privately owned Pharmascience Inc. is the 3rd largest retail generic manufacturer and 10th largest pharmaceutical company in Canada, with a highly skilled workforce of 1,623 employees, 1,546 of which are Quebec-based. Pharmascience Inc. commercializes nearly 400 product families in 20 different dosage forms for over 2,000 products, including generic, branded prescription and over-the-counter consumer products.