Novira Therapeutics Inc., a Radnor, PA-based antiviral drug discovery company, has secured $23m in Series A financing.
The round was co-led by new investors 5AM Ventures and Canaan Partners with participation from WuXi PharmaTech as well as existing investors BioAdvance, Mid-Atlantic Angel Group, Robin Hood Ventures and Delaware Crossing Investment Group (DCIG).
In conjunction with the funding, Scott M. Rocklage, Ph.D., a managing partner with 5AM Ventures, has been appointed chairman of Novira’s board of directors; Tim Shannon, M.D., venture partner at Canaan Partners, has joined the board, which is already comprised of Anthony W. Ford-Hutchinson, Ph.D., and Osvaldo Flores, Ph.D., co-founder, president and CSO of Novira.
The company intends to use the capital to develop its capsid-targeting antivirals for the treatment of chronic hepatitis B (HBV) and HIV infections. HBV infection is a disease for which the only class of oral drugs available, polymerase inhibitors, are rarely curative and often require lifelong treatment. Chronic HIV infection is a disease for which the continued ability of the virus to mutate inevitably leads to drug-resistant viral strains.
FinSMEs
24/08/2012