Date: 2017-12-12
Type of information: Series A financing round
Company: NorthSea Therapeutics (The Netherlands)
Investors: Forbion Capital Partners (The Netherlands) BioGeneration Ventures (The Netherlands) Novo Seeds (Denmark) New Science Ventures (USA - NY)
Amount: € 25 million
Funding type: series A financing round
Planned used:
- NorthSea Therapeutics is a newly established Dutch biotech company focused on developing structurally engineered fatty acids (SEFAs) for the treatment of inflammatory and liver diseases. The company licensed the rights to its lead compound icosabutate and a library of discovery- and pre-clinical-stage SEFAs from Pronova BioPharma, who developed among others Omacor®, a blockbuster cardiovascular drug.
- Icosabutate has been found safe and effective in two prior phase II clinical studies for treatment of hypertriglyceridemia and is currently in clinical development for NASH, aiming to be phase IIb-ready by end 2018. The €25m financing round will be used to conduct a phase IIb clinical study in NASH with icosabutate and to develop it to phase III readiness, including clinical and non-clinical toxicology studies and CMC development.
Others:
- • On December 12, 2017, NorthSea Therapeutics announced today the completion of a €25m Series A funding for the development of icosabutate as a novel, oral approach for the treatment of non-alcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH). The investment syndicate led by Forbion and BGV includes Novo Seeds, the early-stage investment arm of Novo Holdings A/S and New Science Ventures.
- From the investor synicate, the following representatives will join the board of NST: Sander Slootweg (Chair, on behalf of Forbion), Marco Boorsma (also Forbion), Rob de Ree (a BGV Operating Partner), Søren Møller (Novo Seeds) and Somu Subramaniam (NSV). In addition, Oskar Slotboom of BGV will be an observer to the board. NST’s COO Hilde Steineger will also join the board on behalf of the founders, as will Prof. Dr. John Kastelein, as an independent board member.
- NorthSea Therapeutics is headed up by an experienced team of executives from the dyslipidemia and liver disease space. Rob de Ree and Patrick Round, who were instrumental in the success of Dezima Pharma, are CEO and CMO respectively. Hilde Steineger (COO), David Fraser (CSO), and Tore Skjaeret, (VP Chemistry and CMC), all bring deep experience in the development of SEFAs, including icosabutate. The company is also supported by a world-renowned team of clinical and scientific advisors, including Prof. Scott Friedman (Mount Sinai, NYC), Prof. Detlef Schuppan (University of Mainz), and Dr. John Kastelein, Professor of Medicine at the Department of Vascular Medicine at the Academic Medical Center (AMC) in Amsterdam.
Therapeutic area: Hepatic diseases - Liver diseases - Inflammatory diseases
Is general: Yes
