US-based rare disease treatment developer Vtesse raised $17m on Monday from investors including pharmaceutical firms Pfizer and Lundbeck to expand its series A round to $42m.
The corporates, which participated through respective investment vehicles Pfizer Venture Investments and Lundbeckfond Ventures, were joined by Alexandria Venture Investments, the venture capital arm of life sciences real estate firm Alexandria Real Estate Equities, New Enterprise Associates and Bay City Capital.
The same five-strong consortium provided the round’s $25m first tranche in January 2015.
Vtesse, a spinout of orphan drug accelerator Cydan Development, is working on therapies for rare, life-threatening conditions. Its lead candidate, VTS-270, targets the genetic disease Niemann-Pick Type C1.
The funding will support the further development of VTS-270. Vtesse is currently enrolling patients in France, Spain and Turkey in a phase 2b/3 clinical trial for the treatment.
Ben Machielse, president and chief executive of Vtesse, said: “The early development of VTS-270 has benefited from a close collaboration with parents, patient support groups, the National Institutes of Health and our academic collaborators.
“We thank them for their ongoing efforts as we broaden the footprint of our pivotal clinical trial, and we are grateful to our investors for their ongoing support of the company.”