Elevation Pharmaceuticals, a US-based developer of inhaled therapies for patients with respiratory disease, has raised $30m in its series B round from a consortium led by Novo Ventures, an evergreen quasi-corporate venturing fund with 57 portfolio companies.
Venture capital firms Canaan Partners, TPG Biotech, Care Capital and Mesa Verde Venture Partners also invested in the B round having provided $30m for Elevation’s A round in January 2010.
Heath Lukatch, a partner in Novo Ventures, has joined Elevation’s board and said: "Elevation Pharmaceuticals’ EP-101 [product candidate] will provide a much needed new treatment option for an underserved segment of the COPD [chronic obstructive pulmonary disease] patient population. EP-101 has already demonstrated improved lung function in multiple human clinical trials and Elevation’s management team has a successful track record of developing drugs using new delivery technologies."
Novo Ventures is ultimately owned by Denmark-based Novo Nordisk Foundation, which is majority shareholder in the publicly listed healthcare companies Novo Nordisk and Novozymes.