Baltimore Business Journal - by Julekha Dash Staff

Biotech firm Gliknik Inc. has raised $1.1 million of a $3.61 million Series A funding round that it will use to pay for research and developing new drugs to treat autoimmune diseases and cancer.

The Baltimore company Maryland’s biotech tax credits to its ability to raise the money, which came from private individuals, Gliknik CEO Dr. David Block said in an interview.

Under the tax credit program, for every $1 an investor funds in a biotech company, he receives a 50-cent credit from the state.

Gliknik raised $1.8 million last year and has another $700,000 to raise to complete the Series A funding.

Located at the University of Maryland, BioPark, Gliknik was spun out of work by Dr. Scott Strome, professor and chairman of the Department of Otorhinolarynogology-Head & Neck Surgery at the University of Maryland School of Medicine in Baltimore.

Prior to Gliknik, Block ran Ruxton Pharmaceuticals, a venture capital-backed company he launched in 2004. He is also the former chief operating officer of pioneering biotech company Celera Genomics.