Dive Brief:
- Nura Bio, a private biotechnology company developing small molecule drugs for neurodegenerative conditions, has nearly doubled the size of its Series A round and named a new top executive.
- The South San Francisco startup on Tuesday announced it’s raised another $68 million in Series A funding from a group of investors led by The Column Group and including Sanofi’s venture arm. Shilpa Sambashivan, a cofounder and its chief scientist, will take over as its CEO and lead efforts to push its first drug program deeper into clinical testing.
- Nura is developing what it says are “neuroprotective” brain drugs, one of which, dubbed NB-4746, has completed an initial study in healthy volunteers. Nura intends to use the new funding to advance the drug into Phase 1b/2 trials next year, though it hasn’t said which disease it’ll target first.
Dive Insight:
Like many biotech startups invested in neurology research, Nura is working on ways to prevent the death of neurons that occurs in a number of brain diseases. To do so, it’s working on medicines that slow the deterioration of axons, the tails of nerve cells that transmit electrical impulses.
NB-4746 is one example. The drug inhibits an enzyme, SARM1, that’s involved in the degeneration of axons. Nura believes blocking the enzyme can, in turn, preserve the structure and function of axons, which should “halt the degenerative process,” according to Sambashivan.
Preclinical research published in the journal Neuron in 2022 showed the potential of SARM1 inhibition to protect against neuronal injury. Nura has since pushed NB-4726 through an initial trial in healthy volunteers, and found it was safe enough to move into further testing. The company believes it has “broad therapeutic potential,” Sambashivan said, arguing that it could conceivably have a role in treating diseases of the central, peripheral or ocular nervous system.
Nura is currently narrowing down which indication to pursue first. The company intends to reveal more about the rest of its pipeline in the upcoming months, she added.
The capital raise announced Tuesday builds on an initial $73 million in Series A funding the company secured four years ago. Nura opted to add to the existing round rather than start a new one so it could get through a few critical “derisking milestones” first, among them accumulating data in actual patients. Another fundraising could follow shortly thereafter.
“Once you’re a clinical stage company, you’re perpetually in fundraising mode,” Sambashivan said.
Shilpa Sambashivan is the CEO and former CSO of Nura Bio.
Permission granted by Nura Bio
Sambashivan has been with the company since its inception in 2018, when it was spun out of research from Marc Freeman at the Vollum Institute at Oregon Health & Science University and Steven McKnight at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center. She was previously Nura’s chief scientific officer, but took on the lead role as the company moved into clinical testing. The company was formerly led by Alpna Seth, a former executive at Biogen and Vir Biotechnology.
“Under [Sambashivan’s] leadership, Nura Bio has successfully transitioned to a clinical-stage organization, making remarkable progress in identifying ways to translate complex biology into potential therapies,” Tim Kutzkey, managing partner at The Column Group and Nura’s founding chairman, said in a statement.
Samsara BioCapital and Euclidean Capital participated in the funding along with The Column Group and Sanofi Ventures.
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- Source: https://www.biopharmadive.com/news/nura-bio-financing-sarm1-neurodegeneration-drug/727153/