• A total amount raised of €10.5 million in 2011
• This €8 million round follows a €2.5 million round in June

Pharnext SAS, a biopharmaceutical company specializing in the development of innovative treatments based on Pleotherapy™ for severe neurological diseases, today announced that it has raised €8 million in two tranches in October and December 2011. This fundraising follows a €2.5 million round closed in June 2011.

The €8 million round was conducted as a private placement.

The June 2011 round attracted the following investors: Parinvest (a company controlled by Rallye, the holding company for the Casino supermarket group (CEO: Jean-Charles Naouri), La Financière Gaspard (managed by Georges Sampeur, Chairman of the B&B Hotel Group) and Truffle Capital (a leading European private equity firm managed by Philippe Pouletty MD, a co-founder of Pharnext).

"We would like to thank our existing investors as well as our new investors for their support. This successful fundraising will allow us to further progress our research and development activities for Alzheimer's disease¹", commented Pharnext co-founder and CEO Professor Daniel Cohen. "Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease and Alzheimer's disease are severe neurodegenerative conditions that lack satisfactory treatments; our unique Pleotherapy^{TM 2} approach represents a promising alternative for millions of patients worldwide".

Pharnext will use the proceeds of these fundraisings to complete the ongoing Phase II clinical study of Pharnext's first Pleodrug™ for the treatment of Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease type 1A ³ (the completion of patient recruitment was announced by Pharnext in November 2011) and continue to advance the Alzheimer's disease program (the initiation of clinical trials is scheduled in 2012).

About Pharnext:

¹ In France, it is estimated that 800,000 people suffer from Alzheimer's disease (source: . The disease is closely correlated to population ageing and the increase in life expectancy. The prevalence of Alzheimer's disease will continue to progress in the coming years and the condition is considered to be a national priority in France. With 220,000 new cases per year in the country, Alzheimer's disease is both a public health problem and a societal problem.
² see page 2: The Pharnext approach
³ Charcot-Marie Tooth Disease is a severe, invalidating, chronic neuromuscular disease that affects 3 million people worldwide and for which there is currently no treatment.