OrphoMed, Inc., a San Francisco, CA-based clinical stage biopharmaceutical company developing dimer therapies, closed a $39m Series A financing.
The round was led by New Enterprise Associates (NEA), and co-led by existing seed investor Takeda Ventures, Inc., with participation from other prior investors Pappas Capital, through its newest fund, Pappas Ventures V; Relativity Healthcare Partners and the Mario Family Fund. In conjunction with the financing, Frank Torti, MD, Partner at NEA, and Arthur Pappas, Managing Partner of Pappas Capital, will join the company’s board alongside existing directors Michael Martin, PhD, Global Head Takeda Ventures, Inc.; Kenneth Widder, MD, Executive Chairman; and Nikhilesh Singh, PhD, Chief Executive Officer.
The capital will be used to advance the clinical development of OrphoMed’s lead candidate, ORP-101, for the treatment of irritable bowel syndrome with diarrhea (IBS-D).
ORP-101 is a metabolically stable, partial agonist of the μ opioid receptor and antagonist of the κ opioid receptor that is designed to mitigate both abdominal pain due to intestinal hyperalgesia and gastric hypermotility associated with IBS-D, without CNS penetration. In multiple clinically relevant animal models ORP-101 has suppressed general and colon-specific hyperalgesic signals. Importantly, ORP-101 has been shown to not cause constriction of the sphincter of Oddi, which in turn could result in acute pancreatitis, as may occur with other μ agonists. ORP-101 is a proprietary molecule fully owned by OrphoMed, with no downstream royalties or milestone payments.
FinSMEs
24/05/2017