Two Southeast Pennsylvania biopharma companies have announced significant venture capital investments for continued development and, ultimately, commercialization of their cutting-edge drugs.
Trevena Inc., founded in 2008 in King of Prussia, has raised $60 million in its Series C financing round, including a $30 million equity investment by Forest Laboratories of New York. Trevena and Forest have entered into a collaborative licensing option agreement for the development of TRV027 to treat acute heart failure.
If the drug hits future development and commercial milestones, Forest can exercise its option and will pay up to $430 million, plus royalties, to Trevena.
The potential for the drug is enormous. “Acute decompensated heart failure (ADHF) is the fourth leading cause of hospitalization in the United States and there has been no material change in the standard of care for patients with ADHF for decades,” said David Solomon of Forest in a statement. “TRV027 has the potential to be a significant new advance in the treatment of ADHF because it addresses the underlying pathophysiology of the disease, which has been demonstrated in the pre-clinical and early clinical work by Trevena.”
Meanwhile, nearby in Doylestown, Callidus Biopharma, has earmarked $4.6 million in new investment to accelerate pre-clinical development of drugs for a range of “orphan diseases,” rare and ultra-rare diseases and those traditionally under-served by the pharmaceutical industry.
Dr. Hung Do, chief scientific officer and co-founder, said the investment, Callidus’ first external funding, will be used towards initiating clinical studies in 2014 of drugs to treat lysosomal storage disorders, which cause rare genetic diseases.
Sources: Trevena Inc. and Callidus Biopharma
Writer: Elise Vider