US-based rare disease drug developer Vtesse raised $25m yesterday in a series A round featuring pharmaceutical corporate venturing units Pfizer Venture Investments and Lundbeckfond Ventures.
Pfizer Venture Investments, the corporate venturing arm of Pfizer, and Lundbeckfond Ventures, which fulfils the same function for Lundbeck, were joined by New Enterprise Associates, which led the round, Bay City Capital and Alexandria Venture Investments.
Vtesse, a spin-off of orphan-drug accelerator Cydan Development, will use the funding to support work on a treatment it is developing for metabolic disorder Niemann-Pick Disease. Cash will also go to pre-clinical evaluation of other novel drug candidates.
Chris Adams, chief executive of Cydan and a member of Vtesse’s board, said: “Our goal at Cydan Development is to advance innovative treatments for patients with rare diseases by identifying promising assets, accelerating their pre-clinical and clinical development, selecting the right management team, and, ultimately, creating more companies like Vtesse.”