Sanofi Ventures, the corporate venturing arm of pharmaceutical firm Sanofi, co-led a $77.5m series B round for US-based neuro-inflammatory and autoreactive disease drug developer Escient Pharmaceuticals on Monday.
The round was co-led by Cowen Healthcare Investments (CHI) and featured Osage University Partners (OUP), Redmile Group, Perceptive Advisors and all the company’s existing investors, which include Column Group and 5AM Ventures.
Altitude Life Science Ventures’ Fund II also lists Escient as a portfolio company, though it has not revealed when it invested. Jason Hafler, managing director of Sanofi Ventures, has joined its board of directors together with CHI managing partner Kevin Raidy.
Founded in 2018, Escient is working on oral medications for various neuro-inflammatory and autoreactive diseases.
The funding will go to a phase 1/1bn study of the company’s lead drug candidate, EP547, which is aimed at skin itches developed as a side effect of the liver disease cholestasis and kidney disease uraemia.
Escient’s scientific co-founder is Xinzhong Dong, an investigator in Howard Hughes Medical Institute and professor of neuroscience, neurosurgery and dermatology at Johns Hopkins University’s School of Medicine.
The company had previously closed a $40m series A round in May 2018 that included OUP, Column Group and 5AM Ventures.
Alain Baron, Escient’s chief executive, said: “In just over two years since our launch, we have made significant progress developing our platform and pipeline.
“We have advanced both our understanding of the role [Mas-related G protein-coupled receptors] in a number of therapeutic areas and our methods for drugging them to potentially treat several diseases based on novel and specific mechanisms of action.”
The original version of this article appeared on our sister site, Global Corporate Venturing.