US-based brain disease drug developer Cerevance completed a $45m series B round yesterday featuring Takeda Ventures and GV, on behalf of pharmaceutical firm Takeda and internet and technology group Alphabet respectively.
Foresite Capital, Dementia Discovery Fund (DDF), Lightstone Ventures and entrepreneur Bill Gates also participated in the round, which followed $21.5m in series A funding from Takeda Ventures, Lightstone and DDF when the company launched in 2016.
Cerevance is developing treatments for brain diseases using its NETSseq technology, which is capable of organising and profiling types of neuronal and glial cells in the tissue of a human central nervous system (CNS) at considerable depth after death.
The series B proceeds support the identification of druggable targets for CNS diseases such as Alzheimer’s disease by using NETSseq on post-mortem brain tissue samples.
GV general partner David Schenkein said: “Cerevance has a differentiated approach to neurotherapeutics and continues to apply its powerful NETSseq platform to central nervous system diseases.
“With exceptional science, a strong sense of urgency and a leadership team that has previously succeeded together in drug discovery, Cerevance is well-positioned to deliver life-changing therapeutics for patients with brain diseases.”
The technology is based on research by Nathaniel Heintz at Rockefeller University’s Howard Hughes Medical Institute. Cerevance closed the round having agreed a multi-year research agreement with Takeda in December 2019 that could net it up to $170m in milestone payments for each target they identify.
