Therini Bio Secures $17 Million Investment to Advance Fibrin Therapeutic Candidates Towards the Clinic
Strengthens investor syndicate with SV's Impact Medicine Fund, MRL Ventures and Sanofi Ventures joining to accelerate development of disease-modifying drugs for dementia and other inflammatory conditions.
SOUTH SAN FRANCISCO, Calif, May 10, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Therini Bio, Inc. announced it has completed an oversubscribed Seed Extension round of financing. The capital will accelerate the development of Therini's lead program – a monoclonal antibody against fibrin – towards the clinic for patients with inflammatory conditions associated with vascular damage.
Therini Bio was co-founded by Dr. Katerina Akassoglou, PhD, based upon discoveries from her laboratory at Gladstone Institutes and also UC San Francisco that a cryptic epitope on fibrin, a blood-clotting factor, drives toxic chronic inflammation in the brain and the invention of an antibody to selectively target this fibrin cryptic epitope. This mechanism is believed to underlie damage in multiple neurodegenerative diseases including Alzheimer's disease and Multiple Sclerosis, in addition to peripheral inflammatory conditions like colitis and kidney disease. The scientific team at Therini led by Chief Scientific Officer Dr. Jeff Stavenhagen, PhD, has advanced this pioneering work and developed an optimized therapeutic antibody appropriate for human use that attenuates fibrin-induced inflammation without affecting critical clotting functions. In addition, Therini also has developed a suite of antibodies that could be utilized as imaging agents for diagnosis and clinical trial selection and has also discovered a broad set of novel human therapeutic antibody candidates that it is profiling for potential use in a wide range of inflammatory diseases. The Company is using the capital from this financing for antibody manufacturing and IND enabling studies in anticipation of initiating human clinical trials in 2022.
"The upsized financing validates the progress made by Therini's research team and reveals the significant excitement that exists around the breadth and depth of the science behind this new biological approach to inflammation. Having such prestigious corporate and institutional investors around the table provides the critical financial and human capital needed to support Therini through this stage of development as we near human clinical trials. The round will allow us to begin developing our exciting portfolio of antibodies to treat and diagnose a wider array of clinical indications," stated Dan Burgess, President and CEO of Therini.
The round was co-led by SV Health Investors' Impact Medicine Fund, MRL Ventures, and Sanofi Ventures who join existing investors including the Dementia Discovery Fund and Dolby Family Ventures, as well as new investor, Foundation for a Better World in support of the Company. With the closing of the financing Dr. Christine Brennan, PhD from MRL Ventures and Dr. Jim Trenkle, PhD from Sanofi Ventures have joined the Therini board of directors.
About SV
SV Health Investors is a leading healthcare fund manager committed to investing in tomorrow's healthcare breakthroughs. The SV family of funds invests across stages, geographic regions, and sectors, with expertise spanning biotechnology, dementia, healthcare growth, healthcare technology and public equities. With approximately $2.7 billion in assets under management and a truly transatlantic presence with offices in London and Boston, SV has built an extensive network of talented investment professionals and experienced industry veterans. Since its founding in 1993, SV has invested in more than 200 companies with more than 90 of these having achieved successful acquisitions or IPOs. For more information, please visit www.svhealthinvestors.com.
The SV7 Impact Medicine Fund (IMF) is SV's first fund focused solely on Biotech investments. The Fund's mission is to turn scientific breakthroughs into successful biotech companies producing high impact precision medicine drugs for poorly treated diseases. As with SV's predecessor funds, the IMF will maximize the Fund's potential to transform healthcare by working closely with its cutting-edge portfolio companies as trusted advisers and partners and by acting as entrepreneurs who can create and build breakthrough companies and treatments.
About MRL Ventures Fund
MRL Ventures Fund (MRLV) is the therapeutics-focused corporate venture fund of Merck & Co., Inc., with headquarters in Kenilworth, N.J., U.S.A.
From its headquarters in Cambridge, M.A., USA, the MRLV team invests globally in early-stage innovative therapeutics companies that are developing transformative medicines in any therapeutic area using any modality. The MRLV team of experienced life-sciences venture capital professionals is committed to supporting great entrepreneurs in their quest to create value through building companies that have a meaningful impact on health and disease. For more information, please visit: www.mrlv.com.
About Sanofi Ventures
Sanofi Ventures is the corporate venture capital arm of Sanofi. Sanofi Ventures invests in early-stage biotech and digital health companies with innovative ideas and transformative new products and technologies of strategic interest to Sanofi. Among these areas are vaccines, oncology, immunology, rare diseases, potential cures in other core areas of Sanofi's business footprint, and digital health solutions. For more information, visit www.sanofiventures.com.
About Foundation For a Better World
Foundation For a Better World funds a wide array of initiatives supporting medical research, education and global development with a specific focus on advancing medical research that seeks to treat and cure neurodegenerative diseases. To learn more, please visit www.forabetterworldfoundation.org.
About Therini Bio
Located in South San Francisco at Lilly Gateway Labs, Therini is a vascular biology company focused on discovering and developing therapeutics targeting fibrin, a new biological target for neurological and peripheral diseases. In 2020, Therini announced initial Seed funding of $9.35 million led by the Dementia Discovery Fund, Dolby Family Ventures and Alzheimer's Drug Discovery Foundation. Therini has also received funding from the Fast Forward program of the National Multiple Sclerosis Society. Therini is a spin-out from the Gladstone Institutes based on technology discovered in the laboratory of Dr. Katerina Akassoglou, PhD at Gladstone Institutes, UCSF, and UCSD.
Contacts:
Therini Bio, Inc.
Daniel Burgess, Therini Bio, Inc. President & CEO
Email: [email protected]
SOURCE Therini Bio, Inc.
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