France-based autoimmune disease drug developer Step Pharma closed a series A round featuring drug development services provider Sygnature Discovery at €14.5m ($17m) yesterday.
The round was closed following an €8.6m second tranche and included research institution Imagine Institute, Kurma Partners, Inserm Transfert Initiative, Pontifax, Idinvest Partners and Fonds Biothérapies Innovantes et Maladies Rares, a vehicle for state-owned investment bank Bpifrance.
Sygnature Discovery, Bpifrance, Inserm Transfer Initiative, Imagine Institute, Kurma and Idinvest had provided the initial funding for the round in June 2016.
Founded in 2014, Step Pharma is working on treatments for autoimmune diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis and multiple sclerosis. Its approach aims to tackle the deficiency of CTPS1, an enzyme essential to the proper functioning of the human immune system.
The company, co-founded by Imagine Institute, Sygnature Discovery and Kurma Partners, is exploiting research conducted at Inserm, the French National Institute of Health and Medical Research, by Sylvain Latour and Alain Fischer.
The cash will help Step advance its drug candidates to the clinical trial stage, following the development of an assay platform and an initial proof of concept in living cells.
Sygnature Discovery previously contributed to Step’s $2.8m seed round, raised over multiple tranches between July 2014 and June 2015, alongside Imagine Institute, Idinvest, Kurma Partners, Bpifrance and Inserm Transfert Initiative.
– The original version of this article appeared on our sister site, Global Government Venturing.