Sofinnova, AbbVie lead €28m series-A for Enthera
Sofinnova Partners has invested in a €28m series-A round for Italian biotech company Enthera Pharmaceuticals, which develops therapeutics for autoimmune disorders.
Sofinnova co-led the round with AbbVie Ventures, the corporate venture capital arm of US-listed pharmaceutical company AbbVie. AbbVie Ventures was launched in 2009 and focuses on novel and transformational therapeutics at discovery and pre-clinical stages.
Also taking part in the round were JDRF T1D Fund (the venture capital arm of US-based Juvenile Diabetes Research), Indaco Venture Partners and several Italian investors including Banor SIM and Banca Profilo, through Arepo Fiduciaria.
Sofinnova is a European life-sciences-dedicated venture capital firm headquartered in Paris, with offices in London and Milan. Unquote understands that the investment in Enthera was made via Sofinnova Capital IX, which closed on €333m in October 2019.
Following the deal, Margarita Chavez, managing director at AbbVie Ventures, will join Enthera's board of directors, which already includes Sofinnova's managing partner, Graziano Seghezzi.
The company intends to use the fresh capital to obtain clinical proof-of-concept through a first-in-human study for its lead candidate Ent001 and further develop its pipeline of drugs and its research in the regenerative medicine sector.
Previous funding
Enthera raised €4m in a seed funding round led by Sofinnova, with participation from JDRF T1D in July 2018.
Company
Milan-based Enthera was created in a spin-out from Sofinnova's Italian biotech accelerator BiovelocITA in 2016.
The company specialises in the development of drugs for autoimmune diseases, in particular type-1 diabetes and inflammatory bowel disorder. Its lead candidate, Ent001, is a drug with the potential to restore the pancreatic beta cell compartment in type-1 diabetes, as well as the original intestine structure in inflammatory bowel disease, in order to re-establish organ function.
People
Enthera Pharmaceuticals – Giovanni Amabile (CEO).
Sofinnova Partners – Graziano Seghezzi (managing partner).
AbbVie Ventures – Margarita Chavez (managing director).
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