Novo Seeds, the early-stage investment arm of pharmaceutical group Novo, contributed to a €25m ($29.3m) series A round for Netherlands-based liver disease drug developer NorthSea Therapeutics on Tuesday.
Venture capital firm Forbion led the round with participation from two more VC firms, BioGeneration Ventures and New Science Ventures.
NorthSea is developing structurally engineered fatty acids to treat inflammatory and liver diseases. Its lead candidate, icosabutate, is intended to treat non-alcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH), a liver inflammation disease caused by the build up of fat in the liver.
The funding will be used to conduct a phase 2b clinical study in 2018 for icosabutate to treat NASH, and to continue its clinical development following the study’s completion.
Rob de Ree, NorthSea’s CEO, said: “At its inception NorthSea Therapeutics has all the ingredients for success in the competitive NASH space.
“It has a promising and clinically tested compound, a team with experienced drug developers, world-leading experts in the field with a good access to clinical trial sites and backing by a strong syndicate of investors.
“We believe icosabutate has the potential to impact the lives of millions of NASH patients globally, for whom there are currently little treatment options available.”