D&D Pharmatech, a diversified Korea-based drug developer backed by pharmaceutical firm DongKoo Bio&Pharma, has received $51m in a series C round led by Praxis Capital Partners.
The round also featured DS Asset Management, a subsidiary of financial services firm Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group, in addition to venture capital fund Kudos Ventures and asset manager Korea Investment & Securities.
Founded in 2014, D&D owns several purpose-built companies focusing on treatments for conditions ranging from obesity and metabolic disorders like diabetes to neurological diseases like Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s.
Proceeds from the round will be used to advance the company’s weight loss and diabetes drug candidate, DD01, into phase 2 clinical trials, continue funding a phase 2 trial of Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s drug candidate NLY01 and evaluate its potential fibrotic disease treatment, TLY012.
Octave Life Sciences co-led D&D’s $137m series B round with VC firm Smilegate Investment in August 2019. InterVest, Magna Investment and LB Investments filled out that round, all the series B investors having returned from an $18.6m series A round in 2018 that included DonKoo Bio&Pharma and Jion Investment.
Yoo-Seok Hong, chief executive of D&D Pharmatech, said: “We are grateful for the ongoing support and confidence of our investors and excited to have had Praxis Capital lead this series C financing.
“We look forward to the ongoing advancement of our clinical candidates in a diverse range of diseases with significant unmet need and the expansion of our pipeline with potentially game-changing therapeutics.”
