Horama Raises $39 Million to Develop its Gene Therapy Pipeline and Changes Name to Coave Therapeutics

French gene therapy biotech Horama expanded a series B funding round to $39 million (€33.1 million) to advance a pipeline focused on rare ocular and central nervous system diseases and changed its name to Coave Therapeutics. 

Seroba Life Sciences led the financing, which included participation from new investors Théa Open Innovation and eureKARE. Existing shareholders Fund+, Omnes Capital, V-Bio Ventures, Kurma Partners, Idinvest, GO Capital, and Sham Innovation Santé/Turenne participated in the funding round.

Coave Therapeutics will use the proceeds from this fundraising to advance its lead clinical program CTx-PDE6b for the treatment of PDE6b inherited retinal dystrophies, which is currently in a phase I/II clinical trial; develop its AAV Ligand Conjugate (‘ALIGATER’) platform, which is designed to enhance the delivery and efficiency of AAV vectors via a proprietary chemical conjugation technology to produce targeted gene therapy products; and advance new preclinical programs, based on AAV-Ligand Conjugate capsids (coAAV), in rare CNS and ocular diseases, including CTx-GBA1 for Parkinson’s disease and Gaucher Disease and CTx-ABCA4 for Stargardt’s disease.

“Coave Therapeutics is at an exciting point in its development as we look to develop and generate value from our enhanced and selective ALIGATER gene delivery platform,” said Rodolphe Clerval, CEO of Coave Therapeutics. “We are confident that this technology will allow us to generate a pipeline of transformative gene therapy products for the treatment of rare ocular and CNS indications.”

The company also plans to enter partnerships in its key disease areas to take advantage of the potential of its platform for targeting other tissues.

“The potential for Coave Therapeutics to push the boundaries of gene therapy through its next-generation AAV vector platform was what attracted us to lead this financing,” said Bruno Montanari, partner at Seroba Life Sciences. “We are confident that this platform, which enables both targeted delivery and enhanced gene transduction, will allow the company to generate its own pipeline of novel therapies as well as improving the effectiveness of more advanced gene therapies for rare diseases being developed by potential partners.”

Author: Rare Daily Staff