US-based precision medicine developer Expansion Therapeutics closed a $55.3m series A round yesterday co-led by subsidiaries of pharmaceutical groups Novartis and Sanofi.
Novartis Venture Fund and Sanofi Ventures co-led the round with venture capital firms 5AM Ventures and Kleiner Perkins Caufield Byers (KPCB), while RA Capital Management and Alexandria Venture Investments, the VC arm of life sciences real estate trust Alexandria Real Estate Equities, also took part.
Expansion aims to develop small molecule drugs to tackle expansion repeat disorders, a group of 30 often irreversible genetic diseases that include muscular dystrophy, which undermines muscles and causes immobility.
The company’s approach is initially focusing on ribonucleic acids (RNAs), a genomic molecule that plays a factor in how human DNA instructions are turned into proteins and other molecules.
The cash will be used for research targeting RNAs thought to be responsible for certain diseases. Expansion raised $5m in convertible debt from three unnamed investors in May 2017, according to a securities filing.
Campbell Murray, managing director of Novartis Venture Fund, and Jason Hafler, senior director of investments at Sanofi unit Sanofi-Genzyme BioVentures, will join Expansion’s board of directors along with Scott Rocklage of 5AM Ventures and Beth Seidenberg of KPCB. Andrew Levin, managing director of RA Capital, will take a board observer role.