Netherlands-based biopharmaceutical company Prosensa Holdings has received €5m ($7m) from an affiliate of US-based nonprofit organisation CureDuchenne.
Prosensa develops therapeutics to treat genetic disorders. The funding is part of a collaboration to help get experimental medicine smore quickly to patients with duchenne muscular dystrophy, a muscle-wasting childhood disease, and support four drugs currently undergoing clinical trial.
Prosensa went public last year in an $89.7m initial public offering. It raised $29.8m in 2012 from Allianz-backed investment firm IdInvest Partners, New Enterprise Associates, Abingworth, Life Sciences Partners (LSP), Gimv and MedSciences Capital.
The company previously secured $18m in a 2007 series A round from LSP and Abingworth, and $23.5m in 2008 from investos also including Medsciences, Gimv and AGF Management. CureDuchenne invested $1.3m in Prosensa in 2004, and an innovation credit of up to €5m ($6.7m) from AgentschapNL, a subsidiary of the Dutch Ministry of Economic Affairs, Agriculture and Innovation, in 2011.
CureDuchenne has made several strategic investments into companies developing gene-based treatments to slow the progression of duchenne, including Sarepta Therapeutics and PTC Therapeutics.