Fort Worth’s ZS Pharma to get $2M from state
Texas is awarding $2 million from its Emerging Technology Fund to a small Fort Worth company that’s developing medications designed to eliminate life-threatening toxins in patients with kidney disease.
The fund cut an initial $800,000 check to ZS Pharma Inc., and will release the remaining $1.2 million once the company meets certain milestones. In exchange, Texas takes an ownership interest in the private company.
“ZS Pharma has been well-vetted, and we are confident that they are going to be a very successful company,” Bill Sproull, chairman of the technology fund’s state committee, said Monday at the University of North Texas Health Science Center. ZS has been conducting pre-clinical research at the center and hopes to begin human trials early next year.
The award announced Monday is the latest investment from the technology fund, which the Texas Legislature created in 2005. The fund, headed by the governor, lieutenant governor and House speaker, has awarded more than $159 million to 113 early stage companies and $161 million in grant-matching and research funds to Texas universities.
Read more: http://www.star-telegram.com/2010/08/30/2434149/fort-worths-zs-pharma-to-get-2.html#ixzz0yBqSm1hL
