Vasa Therapeutics Announces Closing of Seed Financing to Advance Novel Therapies for Diseases of Cardiovascular Aging

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Jan 03, 2024, 08:00 ET

$6M early-stage biotech investment supplemented by $2.3M non-dilutive grant funding

ENCINITAS, Calif., Jan. 3, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- Vasa Therapeutics, Inc. ("Vasa"), a preclinical stage biopharmaceutical company developing novel therapies for cardiovascular aging, announced today the closing of series seed funding led by Orphinic Scientific SA ("Orphinic"), an early-stage investor focused on companies with game-changing potential. The round also included participation from private investments funds NuFund Venture Group, SeedFolio, and others.

"We are delighted to gain support from a high-quality group of US and international investors who share Vasa's mission to develop transformative therapies for cardiovascular aging that could extend the healthy lifespan," said Artur Plonowski, MD, PhD, CEO and Co-founder of Vasa. "This closing comes at an exciting time for Vasa as VS-041, our clinical candidate for heart failure with preserved ejection fraction (HFpEF), enters the final stages of preclinical development with favorable FDA feedback at a recent pre-IND meeting."

"We are excited to have led the seed financing for Vasa. The company's novel biomarker strategy can lead to a personalized medicine-based therapy for HFpEF, a highly heterogenous disease, for which the currently available drugs do not provide durable improvement," said Adam Kruszewski, CEO of Orphinic. "We are also pleased to see multiple opportunities for the other Vasa assets, including sarcopenia, obesity, and peripheral artery disease."

Orphinic's chairman of supervisory board, Prof. Jarosław Leszczyszyn, will join Vasa's board of directors and represent this round of seed investors.

Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman LLP served as legal counsel to Vasa.

About Vasa Therapeutics

Vasa is a privately held biopharmaceutical company developing therapeutics that target pathophysiology of cardiovascular aging:

VS-041 is the first potential personalized medicine-based treatment of HFpEF. VS-041 shows robust reduction of cardiac fibrosis in preclinical HFpEF model and inhibits release of signaling collagen fragments, such as PRO-C6, that mediate fibroinflammatory responses and are biomarkers of worse outcomes in HFpEF patients. Phase 1 clinical trial of VS-041 is planned for Q2 2024.
Long acting apelin peptide analogs for combination treatment with incretins in obesity patients at risk for skeletal muscle loss or cardiovascular disease. As a monotherapy, long acting apelin agonists could also be beneficial in muscle atrophy, heart failure, chronic kidney disease, and peripheral artery disease.
A best-in-class inhibitor of CamKIId for heart failure and life-threatening arrhythmias.

For more information, please visit www.vasatherapeutics.com

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SOURCE Vasa Therapeutics