GRAND RAPIDS — Drug developer Tetra Discovery Partners LLC said it’s closed on $5 million in new venture capital funding.

The Apjohn Group in Kalamazoo and Holland-based Grand Angels led the investment with San Francisco-based venture firm Dolby Family Ventures. The closing elevated a Series A financing for Tetra Discovery to $7.27 million to support development of a new drug to treat Alzheimer’s disease.

“I have been following Tetra’s progress since the company’s founding,” Donald Parfet, managing director of the Apjohn Group, said in a statement. “Based on Tetra’s experienced management team, their efficient progress from compound discovery into human clinical trials, and the strong support that the company’s efforts have received from the National Institutes of Health, we are very pleased to lead this Series A financing.”

The additional funding will enable the Grand Rapids-based Tetra Discovery to proceed with a Phase 2a clinical trial for its leading drug candidate during the second half of 2017, Chairman and CEO Mark Gurney said.

In addition to the venture capital funding, Tetra Discovery received two new federal grants totaling $5 million from the National Institutes of Health. A $2 million Small Business Innovation Research grant will support a Phase 1 clinical dose study in healthy volunteers older than age 60, and $3 million will go to a Tetra Discovery program on depression.

This story was published by MIBiz.Com.