Cerenis Therapeutics Hauls In $51M For HDL Drug Trials
July 26, 2010 - VentureWire Lifescience
By Brian Gormley
7/26/2010 - Toulouse, France -
Venture firms are funneling EUR40 million ($51 million) into a company with a drug that could remove cholesterol from hardening arteries.
The financing for Cerenis Therapeutics SA is the first closing of a Series C round of undisclosed size. The funding will enable Cerenis to test the drug's ability to reduce artery plaque in a Phase II study of patients at high risk for a heart attack.
New investor Fund for Strategic Investment led the round and invested EUR20 million. All previous investors returned to provide the other half, including Alta Partners, Daiwa Corporate Investment, EDF Ventures, HealthCap, OrbiMed Advisors, Sofinnova Partners and TVM Capital.
Cerenis, based in Toulouse, France, and Ann Arbor, Mich., has now raised a total of EUR107 million since forming in 2005. Valuation is undisclosed, but Chief Executive Jean-Louis Dasseux said it was an up round. The financing, which closed on July 20, takes Cerenis into 2013, he said.
Cerenis's CE-001 mimics high-density lipoprotein, or HDL, which transports cholesterol away from vessel walls and to the liver for elimination. The Phase II study beginning this year will test the drug in patients with acute coronary syndromes, which occur when coronary arteries are suddenly blocked. With the help of intravascular ultrasound, scientists will determine how much the drug reduces artery plaque.
Existing drugs do not reverse atherosclerosis that has already occurred, but statins could be used after CE-001 to prevent plaque from re-clogging arteries, Dasseux said.
To gain marketing clearance, the drug will need to show in Phase III trials that it can reduce mortality in these high-risk patients, said Dasseux, former vice president of chemistry and technology with Esperion Therapeutics Inc., a venture-backed company that went public in 2000.
Esperion, which was developing its own HDL drug, was acquired by Pfizer Inc. in 2003. In 2008 venture investors, including Alta Partners, spun Esperion out to develop products other than the HDL therapy that triggered the merger with Pfizer.
HDL is often referred to as good cholesterol because it facilitates reverse lipid transport. Venture-backed cardiovascular-drug companies with lipid-modulating drugs, however, have tended to target low-density lipoprotein--or bad cholesterol--or triglycerides instead of HDL. For example, Esperion is now developing ETC-1002, which is designed to treat dyslipidemia, or abnormal lipid metabolism, by inhibiting fatty acid and cholesterol synthesis and by
enhancing by oxidation of fatty acids.
Cerenis' pipeline also includes CER-522, a treatment for aortic valve stenosis, and CER-002, a small-molecule PPAR delta agonist with potential to increase HDL levels and halt progression of atherosclerosis.
Jean-Pierre Garnier, former CEO of GlaxoSmithKline PLC, has joined the board and will represent Fund for Strategic Investment.
http://www.cerenis.com
