Switzerland-based drug developer Asceneuron closed a CHF 30m ($30.6m) series A round on Tuesday that included pharmaceutical firms GlaxoSmithKline (GSK), Johnson & Johnson and Merck Serono.
The corporates participated through their respective investment subsdiaries SR One, Johnson & Johnson Innovation and MS Ventures. The round was led by Sofinnova Partners while Kurma Partners also participated.
Asceneuron was founded in 2012 as a spinout of Merck Serono, through MS Ventures’ Entrepreneurship Partnership Programme. The company is working on treatments for neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s.
The money will support the development of Asceneuron’s lead drug candidate through to the completion of a proof of concept trial.
Deborah Harland of SR One, Hakan Goker of MS Ventures and an unnamed representative of Johnson & Johnson Innovation have joined Asceneuron’s board, alongside Henrijette Richter of Sofinnova and Vanessa Malier of Kurma.
MS Ventures previously injected an undisclosed amount of seed funding in Asceneuron. The Entrepreneurship Partnership Programme was set up with a €30m ($33.5m) commitment in 2012.