Artizan Biosciences, a US-based developer of treatments for inflammatory diseases spun out of Yale University, has collected $11m in a series A2 round co-led by biopharmaceutical company Biohaven Therapeutics.
Hatteras Venture Partners co-led the round, which also attracted spinout-focused investment firm Osage University Partners (OUP), Connecticut Innovations and Elm Street Ventures.
Artizan is working on therapies for inflammatory diseases linked to the intestinal microbiota. It will use the financing to advance the preclinical development of a lead programme aimed at inflammatory bowel disease and to explore other disease targets.
The company has entered into an option and licence agreement that gives Biohaven the rights to exercise an option on up to three assets aimed at inflammatory bowel disease and commercialise them in the United States.
Biohaven and Artizan have also formed a collaboration deal focused on neurological diseases and have negotiated undisclosed financial terms. Donnie McGrath, chief of corporate strategy and business development at Biohaven, and private investor Seth Rudnick have joined its board of directors.
Johnson & Johnson Innovation – JJDC, the investment arm of pharmaceutical group Johnson & Johnson, joined OUP and Elm Street Ventures in a series A round for the company that closed in mid-2019 and which was sized at $12m according to the Wall Street Journal.
Artizan raised an undisclosed sum from Malin and Hatteras Venture Partners in 2017, and its backers also include Brii Biosciences, a pharmaceutical company with which it has signed a collaboration agreement that will involve the latter commercialising three drug candidates in China.
The original version of this article appeared on our sister site, Global University Venturing.
