A Novartis drug that has performed poorly in the treatment of rare muscle diseases now has a second shot as a potential treatment for obesity. Versanis Bio has obtained a license for the drug, and the startup has raised $70 million for mid-term clinical trials.
this A round of financing It was announced on Tuesday to be led by Atlas Venture and Medicxi. Aditum Bio, the investment company that founded Versanis, also invested in this Auckland-based startup.
The drug, bimagrumab, was originally developed by Novartis in cooperation with MorphoSys. Bimagrumab is an antibody designed to bind to the type II activin receptor, which is part of a family of receptors involved in various cellular functions. The binding to this receptor is intended to block the binding of inhibitory molecules.
Novartis has developed bimagrumab as a treatment for a series of muscle wasting diseases. In 2016, Novartis and MorphoSys reported that the drug Does not meet the standard In the Phase 2b/3 study of sporadic inclusion body myositis, this is a rare disease that causes progressive muscle weakness.
Bimagrumab was tested by Novartis and MorphoSys on more than 1,500 people and showed that the drug is safe. Despite the failure of muscle disease, Novartis continues to conduct clinical testing of the drug to learn more. One of the studies was a placebo-controlled phase 2 clinical trial that recruited 75 type 2 diabetic patients with a body mass index in the obesity range. The results showed a significant decrease in fat mass and an increase in lean body mass. During the 48-week study, metabolic improvements were also reported.turn out Publish At the JAMA Internet Open earlier this year.
Versanis’ current goal is to replicate the results of Novartis’ research. The startup plans to use Series A cash to fund a comprehensive Phase 2 clinical trial to evaluate the drug’s ability to help obese patients lose weight.
“As people age, the loss of muscle mass makes it more difficult to lose weight,” Versanis CEO Lloyd Klickstein said in a prepared statement. “All existing obesity treatments have the risk of further reducing muscle and fat. Bimagrumab is a unique treatment that can significantly reduce fat while strengthening muscles, providing a potential breakthrough in the obesity epidemic.”
Versanis is the fifth company established by Aditum since it went out of stealth at the end of last year. Aditum was co-founded by former Novartis executives Joe Jimenez and Mark Fishman. Its model is to license drug assets that fall on the priority list of large pharmaceutical companies, and then form start-up companies to take over the development of these drugs. Aditum brings software and technology to the task; it is in line with TrialSpark, a New York-based start-up company whose software manages all aspects of clinical trials, Such as patient recruitment and data collection.
Photo: Pakhnyushchyy, Getty Images
