US-based pruritus treatment developer Trevi Therapeutics closed a $50.5m series C round today featuring Lundbeckfonden Ventures, the corporate venture capital arm of pharmaceutical firm Lundbeck.
VC firm New Enterprise Associates (NEA) led the round, which included healthcare-focused investment firms Omega Funds and Aperture Venture Partners, and TPG Biotech, the life sciences investment branch of private equity group TPG.
Founded in 2011, Trevi is working on a therapeutic called Nalbuphine to treat chronic pruritus, an itch associated with dermatologic, metabolic, haematologic and neuropathic conditions.
The series C funds will be used to advance clinical development of Nalbuphine, which showed positive results in a phase 2 clinical trial for patients with prurigo nodularis, and a phase 2/3 trial in uremic pruritus.
TPG had provided Trevi’s earlier capital, providing $10m as part of a 2012 series A round before adding $26m in series B funding over two tranches in 2014.
Mette Kirstine Agger, managing partner of Lundbeckfond Ventures, will join Trevi’s board in conjunction with its investment, along with Ed Mathers from NEA and Otello Stampacchia from Omega Funds. David Meeker, formerly CEO of drug producer Sanofi/Genzyme, has been appointed chairman.
The round comes two days after another pruritus therapy developer, Menlo Therapeutics, raised $50m in its own series C round.