Dynacure, a France-based centronuclear myopathy therapy developer backed by biopharmaceutical company Ionis Pharmaceuticals, raised €47m ($55m) yesterday in a funding round led by private equity firm Andera Partners.
French government-owned investment bank BPIfrance also took part in the round, as did Pontifax, Kurma Partners and Idinvest Partners.
Founded in 2016, Dynacure is working on Dyn101, a treatment for centronuclear myopathy, a group of rare and often fatal conditions that cause muscle weakness and wasting. Dyn101 is being developed in collaboration with drug developer Ionis Pharmaceuticals.
The company was co-founded by Ionis, Kurma Partners and Satt Conectus, the regional technology transfer office for institutions in France’s Alsace region. It builds on research led by Jocelyn Laporte at the Institute of Genetic and Molecular and Cellular Biology.
The money will fund the clinical development of Dyn101 and preclinical research programs targeting other orphan disorders.
Satt Conectus, Ionis Pharmaceuticals, Kurma Partners and Idinvest Partners provided an undisclosed amount of funding for Dynacure in 2016, before BPIfrance made an investment of undisclosed size the following year.
Satt Conectus had supported the project’s early development with a total of approximately $515,000 in funding that was supplied over three tranches between 2013 and 2015.
– The original version of this article appeared on our sister site, Global University Venturing.