June 24, 2011

Diabetes drug development company Lumena Pharmaceuticals aims to harness a benefit that diabetics receive from gastric bypass surgery and deliver it to those patients in the form of a pill.

The Durham, North Carolina-based company plans to start clinical trials on its experimental drug this year. To get there, Lumena has raised $500,000 in a round that could go up to $2 million with funding so far coming largely from Durham venture capital firm Pappas Ventures.