Scholar Rock, a US-based spinal muscular atrophy (SMA) drug developer, completed a $47m series C round yesterday that included diversified conglomerate Kraft Group.
Hedge fund Redmile Group led the round, which also featured financial services group Fidelity Management and Research, Polaris Partners, Arch Venture Partners, EcoR1 Capital, Cormorant Asset Management and Scholar Rock founder Timothy Springer.
The series C funds will support the progress of Scholar Rock’s lead drug candidate, SRK-015, a treatment for SMA and other neuromuscular disorders, into clinical development in the first half of this year.
Scholar Rock also intends to put funds into developing candidates for diseases such as immuno-oncology, fibrosis and anaemias associated with iron restriction.
Nagesh Mahanthappa, Scholar Rock’s president and CEO, said: “We expect 2018 to be a critical year of growth for Scholar Rock, as we advance the first clinical candidate from our groundbreaking platform into the clinic to address an important unmet need in SMA and continue to build out our pipeline.”
The round took the company’s overall funding to $103m, Kraft having first invested as part of a $20m series A round in 2014 led by Arch Venture Partners that also featured EcoR1 Capital, Polaris Partners and Springer.
All the series A investors returned for a $36m series B round led by Fidelity Management and Research in early 2016 that included Cormorant Asset Management.