Aquinox Pharmaceuticals, a Vancouver drug developer, raised $14.5 million in a first funding round. Ventures West Capital led the round, joined by Johnson & Johnson Development Corp., Baker Brothers Investments and BC Advantage Funds.

Aquinox is developing drugs that inhibit a newly discovered enzyme called SHIP (for more detail, see here) that appears to play an important role in blood cancers and inflammatory diseases. The company’s lead drug candidate, AQX-MN100, is still in animal testing.

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