BOSTON, Acetylon Pharmaceuticals, Inc. announced today that it has completed a $27 million Series B Preferred equity investment round of financing. The proceeds will be used in part to fund the advancement of the Company's lead drug candidate ACY-1215 - a next-generation Class II-selective histone deacetylase (HDAC) inhibitor - into Phase I/II clinical testing for patients with relapsed and relapsed-refractory multiple myeloma. The funds were raised largely from private individuals, including the previous participants in the 2009 Series A financing as well as new investors. The Series B funding complements $4.9 million in funding from The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society announced earlier this quarter in support of clinical development of ACY-1215, the first Class II-selective therapeutic HDAC6 inhibitor candidate. Acetylon has made rapid progress from the initiation of lead optimization in 2009 to IND allowance in 2011 and anticipates US hospitals participating in the Phase I/II clinical trial of ACY-1215 to begin enrolling patients over the next several months.

Acetylon Pharmaceuticals Inc. is developing next-generation selective small molecule histone deacetylase (HDAC) inhibitors and other targeted drugs for the treatment of cancers as well as inflammatory, neurodegenerative, genetic and infectious diseases. Selective HDAC inhibitors have the potential to reduce or eliminate the substantial side effects observed with current non-selective approaches while also realizing their extraordinary potential for enhanced therapeutic benefit through higher dosing, extended administration and reduction of combination drug toxicity. Selective HDAC inhibitors also have potential for improved therapeutic benefit in autoimmune and other inflammatory disorders, neurodegenerative diseases and certain genetic and infectious diseases.