France-based biotechnology developer Vivet Therapeutics raised €37.5m ($41m) in yesterday in a series A round co-led by Novartis Venture Fund, the investment arm of pharmaceutical firm Novartis.
Roche Venture Fund, the corporate venturing subsidiary of healthcare business Roche, also took part in the series A round, which was led by venture capital firm Columbus Venture Partners, as did HealthCap, Kurma Partners and Ysios Capital.
Founded in 2016, Vivet is working on a pipeline of gene therapies to treat a range of rare, inherited metabolic diseases such as Wilson’s disease, which causes the possibly life-threatening accumulation of copper in a patient’s liver, brain and other vital organs.
Vivet is exploiting research by non-profit foundation Fundación para la Investigación Médica Aplicada at Navarra University’s Centre for Applied Medical Research (Cima) and Massachusetts Eye and Ear (MEE), the ophthalmology teaching hospital of Harvard Medical School.
The money will support the advancement of Vivet’s pipeline, including its lead program, VTX801, which targets Wilson’s disease. The condition currently affects approximately 10,000 patients in the US and 15,000 across the European Union.
– The original version of this article appeared on our sister site, Global University Venturing.