Ception Therapeutics raises additional $15M for anti-inflammatories

Malvern, Pa.-based Ception Therapeutics, a biotech developing drugs to treat inflammatory disease, raised an additional $14.7 million in its third funding round, bringing the total round to $77 million. Participants included the hedge funds Third Point LLC and Greenlight Capital, both existing investors. The company’s release is here.

Ception claims to have a biologic drug candidate in mid-stage human trials for “multiple inflammatory conditions,” although I wasn’t able to find any trace of it in the federal government’s clinical trials database. The company, in fact, discloses next to no information about its drug-development or business activities, which is sort of unusual for a biotech startup whose drugs are already in phase II testing. For instance, it doesn’t disclose the names of its compounds or the specific diseases in which they’re being tested, and according to this story, Ception acquired Fulcrum Pharmaceuticals in Dec. 2005, but it doesn’t mention the fact on its Web site and apparently issued no press release.

Mighty strange, although maybe the company — or its hedge-fund investors — just value privacy.