Renovacor, a US-based gene therapy spinout of Temple University focused on cardiovascular disease, closed an $11m series A round yesterday co-led by Novartis Venture Fund, a corporate venturing subsidiary of pharmaceutical firm Novartis.
The round was co-led by venture capital firm BioAdvance and Broadview Ventures, a cardiovascular-focused impact investment vehicle formed by family office Leducq Family Trust, while New Leaf Venture Partners and Innogest Capital also invested.
Renovacor is looking to commercialise a drug for dilated cardiomyopathy (DCM), a serious blood circulation impairment that arises when the heart’s main pumping chamber – the left ventricle – has become frail and inflated.
The drug will treat DCM subtypes where the patient possesses a faulty BAG3 gene, depositing its therapeutic genetic payload into the body through a recombinant adeno-associated virus vector.
BAG3-driven DCM affects approximately 35,000 people in the US and is classified as an orphan disease. It carries a higher risk of heart failure occurring sooner, and patients with the tend to be relatively young compated to the wider DCM disease population.
Proceeds from the series A round will support the progress of Renovacor’s lead program, with a view to submitting an investigational new drug application and commencing human clinical trials.
Campbell Murray, managing director at Novartis Venture Fund, is joining the company’s board of directors together with Thomas Needham from Broadview Ventures and Arthur Feldman, whose research at Temple University’s Lewis Katz School of Medicine informed Renovacor’s understanding of BAG3 mutations.
– A version of this article originally appeared here on our sister site, Global University Venturing.