NEW ORLEANS – Benson Capital Partners announces its first investment from its recently launched fund, Benson Capital Fund I, in AxoSim, Inc., a New Orleans-based neurological drug discovery platform company. AxoSim’s proprietary technologies, NerveSim and BrainSim, are designed to empower scientists from leading biopharmaceutical companies to predict how the human nervous system will respond to therapies much earlier in the drug development process. Benson Capital Partners coinvested with Jefferson Capital Partners’ Opportunity Zone fund vehicle.
AxoSim says the development of new drugs for neurodegenerative diseases including Alzheimer’s, ALS, Parkinson’s and MS is slow and inefficient. The company says over 94% of neurological drugs that look promising in animal testing fail once they are tested in humans, driving the average cost and time to develop a single new drug to $2.6 billion and more than 10 years. AxoSim’s BrainSim and NerveSim platforms aim to provide a more clinically relevant way to test drugs by mimicking the structure and function of the human nervous system, accelerating the development of safer and more effective treatments.
“AxoSim’s technologies and team have the ability to accelerate new treatments for debilitating neurological diseases to the clinic. We are excited that Benson Capital Partners’ first investment is in a company with both local and global impact, addressing a large and important market.” says Mike Katz, managing director of Benson Capital Partners. “We were impressed by the management team and the impressive roster of global pharmaceutical companies they have already attracted as their clients. Through partnerships like this, Gayle Benson will continue to honor her late husband Tom Benson by fostering entrepreneurship and innovation in New Orleans and the Gulf South Region.”
