AvroBio, a US-based developer of treatments for rare diseases, has closed a $60m series B round that included Brace Pharma Capital, the investment firm formed by pharmaceutical company EMS.
Cormorant Asset Management and Surveyor Capital co-led the round, which also featured Aisling Capital, Eventide Asset Management, Morningside Venture Capital, Atlas Venture, SV Health Investors and Clarus Ventures.
AvroBio is working on gene therapies for rare diseases and will put the series B funding into advancing its lead product candidate, AVR-RD-01, which is currently in a phase 1 clinical study for Fabry disease, a rare inherited disease where a defective gene produces an enzyme or protein.
The company plans to begin a phase 2 study for AVR-RD-01 in Fabry disease later this year and has therapies for three more lysosomal storage disorders – Gaucher disease, cystinosis and Pompe disease – in development. It plans to advance the first two into the clinic by mid-2019.
Geoff MacKay, AvroBio’s president and CEO, said: “We are excited to continue to rapidly advance our clinical program for AVR-RD-01 in Fabry disease, while also moving two additional gene therapies from our pipeline into clinical trials.
“We are on the leading edge of applying gene therapy as a potential single-dose curative treatment for lysosomal storage disorders, and our vision is to use our lentiviral platform to have broader impact for patients by shifting the paradigm for a wide range of other diseases.”
Atlas Venture launched AvroBio in February 2016 with an undisclosed amount of seed capital, before it co-led a $25m series A round for the company with Clarus and SV Life Sciences six months later.