US-based genetic medicine developer Akouos completed a $105m series B round yesterday that included Novartis Venture Fund and Partners Innovation Fund, investing on behalf of pharmaceutical firm Novartis and care provider Partners HealthCare.
Life sciences investment fund Pivotal BioVenture Partners led the round, which included investment and financial services group Fidelity and fellow new investors Cormorant Asset Management, Cowen Healthcare Investments, EcoR1 Capital, Polaris Founders Fund, Wu Capital, Pagsgroup and Surveyor Capital.
New Enterprise Associates (NEA), 5AM Ventures, RA Capital Management and Sofinnova Investments also contributed to the round, as existing backers.
Akouos is working on precision gene therapies for hearing loss and its lead program, AK-OTOF, is concentrated on sensorineural hearing loss caused by mutations in the otoferlin (OTOF) gene.
The series B proceeds will be used to take AK-OTOF into its first-in-human clinical studies, in addition to further development of the company’s product pipeline and the establishment of its first manufacturing capacity.
Manny Simons, founder, president and CEO of Akouos, said: “This year is poised to be one of growth for Akouos, and we are delighted to have the support from a world-class syndicate of investors in our series B financing to advance our current programs and pipeline of potential genetic medicines for hearing loss.”
NEA and 5AM Ventures co-led a $7.5m seed round for Akouos in 2017, investing together with Partners Innovation Fund.
Akouos added $50m in a 2018 series A round led by the same two investors that included Partners Innovation Fund, Novartis Venture Fund, Sofinnova Ventures and RA Capital Management.
