Aspen Neuroscience, a US-based Parkinson’s disease drug developer backed by pharmaceutical company Eurofarma, completed a $70m series A round on Wednesday.
The round was led by healthcare investment firm OrbiMed and also featured Arch Venture Partners, Frazier Healthcare Partners, Domain Associates, Section 32 and angel investor Sam Altman.
Founded in 2018, Aspen Neuroscience is working on a neuron replacement therapy to treat Parkinson’s, which affects the nervous system and which can cause uncontrollable tremors.
The funding will support the completion of investigational new drug (IND)-enabling studies for Aspen’s lead drug candidate, ANPD001, in sporadic forms of Parkinson’s, in addition to the submission of an IND application to the US Food and Drug Administration.
The company also has a second candidate, ANPD002, in its pipeline and is developing it for the treatment of genetic forms of Parkinson’s.
Aspen officially launched in December 2019 having raised $6.5m in a seed round co-led by Eurofarma subsidiary Axon Ventures and Domain Associates that also featured Arch Venture Partners, OrbiMed, Section 32 and Alexandria Venture Investments, part of real estate investment firm Alexandria Real Estate Equities.
Howard Federoff, Aspen Neuroscience’s CEO, said: “Our mission at Aspen Neuroscience is to develop a restorative, disease modifying autologous neuron therapy for people suffering from Parkinson’s disease.
“We are dedicated to using a person’s own cells for replacement therapy and bringing best-in-class treatments to people suffering from Parkinson disease as rapidly as possible.”
