US-based skin condition treatment developer Menlo Therapeutics received $50m in series C funding yesterday from investors including pharmaceutical company Novo.
Life sciences investment firm VenBio led the round, which also featured Rock Springs Capital, Aisling Capital, Bay City Capital, Vivo Capital, Presidio Partners, Remeditex and F-Prime Capital, a subsidiary of financial services group Fidelity.
Menlo is developing an oral treatment called Serlopitant to treat pruritus, an itch associated with skin conditions atopic dermatitis, psoriasis and prurigo nodularis, and to treat refractory chronic cough.
The company has completed two phase 2 clinical trials for the drug for chronic pruritus, and plans to begin two phase 3 trials for chronic pruritus with nodularis pruritus, as well as three phase 2 trials for other conditions.
Serlopitant was originally developed by pharmaceutical firm Merck and licensed to Menlo in 2012.
Menlo has not disclosed details of its earlier funding, but said F-Prime Capital, Vivo Capital, Presidio Partners and Remeditex all participated in the round as existing investors.