Pharmaceutical firm AbbVie co-led a $38m series A round yesterday for Nitrome Biosciences, a US-based developer of treatments for age-related disorders, through corporate venture capital subsidiary AbbVie Ventures.
The round was co-led by VC firm Sofinnova Partners and included Alexandria Venture Investments, the VC arm of life sciences real estate investment trust Alexandria Real Estate Equities, as well as Dementia Discovery Fund and Mission Bay Capital.
Nitrome will put the series A funds into progressing its lead drug candidate, a potential Parkinson’s Disease treatment, toward its first clinical proof of concept studies in human subjects.
The company’s approach targets a type of enzyme called nitrases and it intends to explore the expansion of its drug development platform to other age-related disorders, such as neurodegenerative diseases, type II diabetes, cancer and heart disease.
AbbVie Ventures managing director Margarita Chavez is joining Nitrome’s board of directors in connection with the round, along with Henrijette Richter of Sofinnova Partners and Jonathan Behr from Dementia Discovery Fund.
Irene Griswold-Prenner, Nitrome’s founder, chief executive and chief science officer, said: “This financing will enable Nitrome to advance our mission of impacting the lives of patients with neurodegenerative and other age-related diseases.
“We are thrilled to have the support of this world-class group of life science investors led by Sofinnova Partners and AbbVie Ventures, who bring their invaluable strategic counsel and deep expertise to the Nitrome team.”
The company has not revealed details of its earlier financing but securities filings indicate it closed $100,000 in equity funding and $750,000 in debt financing in July 2018, adding $400,000 in debt in January 2019 and $500,000 in debt six months later.
