Vigil Neuroscience, a US-based neurodegenerative disease drug developer backed by pharmaceutical firm Amgen, launched yesterday with $50m in series A funding.
Venture capital firms Atlas Venture and Northpond Ventures co-led the round, which included fellow VC firm Hatteras Venture Partners and Alexandria Venture Investments, the VC arm of real estate investment trust Alexandria Real Estate Equities.
Founded earlier this year, Vigil is working on precision medical treatments that will combat neurodegenerative diseases by restoring the vigilance of microglia, the collective name for the sentinel cells of the brain’s immune system.
Vigil was co-founded and incubated by Atlas Venture, which had also provided it with an undisclosed amount of seed capital. Its pipeline is made up of preclinical-stage assets licensed from Amgen, which is also a shareholder in the startup.
The funding will be used to advance Vigil’s lead monoclonal antibody drug candidate into phase 1 clinical trials expected to begin in 2021.