Oricula Therapeutics, a startup spun out of the University of Washington, has raised $122,000 to commercialize medicine that can help prevent hearing loss.
Founded in 2013, Seattle-based Oricula grew out of research done at the UW that uncovered ways to help patients maintain good hearing after taking antibiotics for serious infections. The startup has licensed the intellectual property from the UW and will use the fresh funding, which comes from the company’s founders and one angel investor, to move its research into the real world.
Oricula said its product will be the first FDA-approved medicine that can protect the inner ear from the damages caused by antibiotics. The company, made up of employees who work at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center and Seattle Children’s Hospital, among others, also notes that its drugs will allow for a broader worldwide use of antibiotics that can treat life-threatening bacterial infections.
Oricula is the latest Seattle-based biotech organization to land funding in recent months. Just this week, Seattle-based Adaptive Biotechnologies announced a big $105 million investment, while Fred Hutch announced a $20 million donation from the family of Amazon.com CEO Jeff Bezos. Juno Therapeutics, another Seattle startup spun out of the Fred Hutch, the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center and Seattle Children’s Research Institute, raised a hefty $145 million series A round in January.
