US-biotechnology company Alector has obtained $29.5m in series D funding in a round led by the multi-corporate and UK government-backed Dementia Discovery Fund.
The round was supported by Amgen Ventures, a subsidiary of biopharmaceutical company Amgen; GV, the corporate venturing unit formerly known as Google Ventures; Merck Research Lab (MRL) Ventures, a seed-stage fund of pharmaceutical firm Merck; and pharmaceutical firm AbbVie.
The corporates were joined by OrbiMed, Polaris Partners, Topspin Partners and Mission Bay Capital.
Founded in 2013, Alector is developing therapies for a range of neurodegenerative disorders including Alzheimer’s disease. The treatments exploit the body’s own immune system to prevent the conditions.
The funding will support the advancement of the company’s drug candidates into clinical trials and the expansion of its pipeline. The company is also looking to recruit immunologists and neurobiologists.
Alector has now secured $62m in total funding. MRL Ventures led a $32m series C round in September 2015 with participation from Google Ventures, OrbiMed, Polaris Partners, Topspin Partners, Mission Bay Capital and unnamed additional backers.
Jansen, a pharmaceutical subsidiary of healthcare company Johnson & Johnson, injected an undisclosed sum in Alector in 2014.
Dementia Discovery Fund is a $100m fund aimed at dementia treatments that is backed by pharmaceutical companies Biogen, GlaxoSmithKline, Johnson & Johnson, Eli Lilly, Pfizer and Takeda, as well as medical charity Alzheimer’s Research UK.
The fund was launched in October 2015 by the UK government, which has backed it through its Department of Health, and it is managed by venture capital firm SV Life Sciences.