US-based biopharmaceutical startup Tiburio Therapeutics has launched with $31m in series A funding from investors including pharmaceutical firm Lundbeck and life sciences real estate investment trust Alexandria Real Estate Equities.
Venture capital firms New Enterprise Associates (NEA) and Longitude Capital also took part. Lundbeck participated through corporate venture capital arm Lundbeckfonden Ventures while Alexandria Real Estate Equities invested through its Alexandria Venture Investments vehicle.
Tiburio is developing a drug that aims to treat non-functioning pituitary adenoma (NFPA), a type of tumour that affects the brain’s pituitary gland, which controls the function of other glands in the body.
The company will use the funding to advance its lead candidate, TBR-760, which is licensed from drug manufacturer Ipsen, into human trials in the second half of 2019. Additional proceeds will go to research for a second compound, TBR-065, which will target other rare endocrine diseases.
Abraham N. Ceesay, Tiburio’s chief executive, said: “TBR-760 and TBR-065 represent potential breakthroughs in the treatment of debilitating neuroendocrine diseases and we, at Tiburio, are intently focused on advancing these compounds for the benefit of patients.
“We will immediately begin phase 2 enabling studies with TBR-760 and anticipate enrolling patients with NFPA in a phase 2 study in the second half of 2019.”
Tiburio was launched by Cydan, an orphan-drug accelerator that raised $34m in a late 2017 round that included all four Tiburio investors as well as Pfizer Venture Investments, the corporate venturing subsidiary of pharmaceutical firm Pfizer.