Dublin-headquartered life sciences start-up Priothera has announced that it has raised €30m in Series A funding. The company is developing treatments for acute myeloid leukaemia (AML).
The funding round was led by Dublin-based investment firm Fountain Healthcare Partners, with participation from co-lead investor HealthCap and funds managed by Tekla Capital Management as well as Earlybird Venture Capital.
In a statement, Priothera said that the funding round will help progress the clinical development of mocravimod, which is a modulator of sphingosine 1-phosphate receptors, to enhance the potential of allogenic hematopoietic stem-cell transplantation (HSCT) for treating AML.
Developing therapies
With the Series A funding, Priothera said that it expects to generate further randomised clinical data in high-risk AML patients. The start-up, which was founded in 2020 by Dr Florent Gros and Dr Dhaval Patel, acquired mocravimod from Kyorin Pharmaceutical Co.
It said that mocravimod has already been tested extensively in multiple immunologic indications and has shown survival benefit in an early clinical study evaluating patients with AML and acute lymphocytic leukaemia undergoing HSCT.
Priothera said that its co-founders have joined the board of directors alongside Dr Manus Rogan from Fountain Healthcare Partners, Dr Mårten Steen from HealthCap, Lionel Carnot from Earlybird Venture Capital, and Dr Henry Skinner from Tekla Capital Management.
Gros, who is chief executive of the start-up, said: “We are delighted to welcome this terrific syndicate of investors who share our passion, commitment and vision for advancing Priothera’s potentially best-in-class new therapy, mocravimod, in patients with acute myeloid leukaemia and other hematologic malignancies.
“Allogenic stem cell transplant is the only potentially curative approach for AML patients, but has unacceptably high mortality with current treatments. We are excited about mocravmiod, which has a unique mechanism of action and clinical proof-of-concept demonstrating its ability to improve survival outcomes for this devastating disease.”
Kelly Earley
This article originally appeared on www.siliconrepublic.com and can be found at:
https://www.siliconrepublic.com/innovation/priothera-life-sciences-funding-dublin-leukaemia
Ireland
