US-based biotherapeutics developer Escape Bio secured $73m in crossover financing on Monday from investors including pharmaceutical firms Novo, Johnson & Johnson and Novartis.
The round was led by investment manager Wellington Management and also featured Avidity Partners, Cam Capital, New Leaf Ventures, Rock Springs Capital, Surveyor Capital, Sphera Funds Management, OrbiMed, Osage University Partners (OUP) and Sutter Hill Ventures.
Johnson & Johnson and Novartis invested through corporate venture capital subsidiaries Johnson & Johnson Innovation – JJDC and Novartis Venture Fund respectively.
Founded in 2015, Escape Bio is working on precision medicines for genetically-defined neurodegenerative diseases.
The company’s lead asset, ESB1609, is undergoing a phase 1 clinical study as an agonist to sphingosine-1-phosphate 5, a receptor expressed in the central nervous system and natural killer cells that, once activated, would counteract multiple neurodegenerative pathways.
Escape Bio also has a preclinical product candidate called ESB5070 that is being developed to inhibit a protein mutation called G2019S which is implicated in Parkinson’s disease.
The latest funding comes after Escape Bio raised $31m in equity funding in July 2019, according to a regulatory filing, though that may be related to the crossover financing.
The company closed a $63m series A round in 2017 with an $8m investment by Sutter Hill Ventures and Lilly Asia Ventures, a corporate venturing subsidiary of pharmaceutical firm Eli Lilly.
Novo, Novartis Venture Fund and Johnson & Johnson Innovation – JJDC had joined OUP for the round’s 2015 first close.
The original version of this article appeared on our sister site, Global University Venturing.