GSK spins off Autifony, which gets £10mm in a Series A commitment; round totals £23.75mm

Autifony Therapeutics Ltd. (hearing disorders) has spun off from GlaxoSmithKline PLC and concurrently received a Series A commitment of £10mm ($16mm) evenly split by Imperial Innovations Group PLC (which will have 33.6% ownership) and SV Life Sciences. A director from Imperial has joined Autifony’s board. Autifony has collected £3mm in the first tranche; the rest will be realized upon the achievement of milestones, including completion of a major preclinical toxicology study leading to IND or CTA filing (expected within a year). Once certain milestones are met and all of the financing is received, GSK’s stake in Autifony will be reduced from 25.4% to 13.2%.