Draupnir Bio completes €12 million seed round to progress development of oral small molecule degraders of extracellular proteins
17 Julio 2024 - 6:00AM
Draupnir Bio completes €12 million seed
round to progress development of oral small molecule degraders of
extracellular proteins
- MP Healthcare and EIFO join
existing investors, Gilde Healthcare Partners, Inkef Capital and
Novo Holdings
Copenhagen, Denmark, 17 July 2024
– Draupnir Bio (“Draupnir”), a biotechnology company
harnessing the natural machinery of the lysosome to develop oral,
small molecule degraders of extracellular disease-causing proteins,
today announces equity investments totalling €12 million to support
the Company’s ambition to revolutionise the field of targeted
protein degradation (TPD).
TPD is a rapidly emerging field in drug
development, exploiting a cell’s own destruction machinery to
tackle disease-causing proteins that have historically been highly
challenging to target with conventional therapies. Yet
first-generation approaches are exclusively limited to cytosolic
targets, leaving extracellular and membrane-bound proteins – 40% of
the human proteome – untouched.
Draupnir is extending the potential of TPD to
target extracellular and membrane-bound proteins in a pioneering
approach using its novel and differentiated, proprietary technology
platform, utilising lysosome receptors, which holds the potential
to revolutionise the field of TPD.
MP Healthcare, the corporate venture group of
Mitsubishi Tanabe Pharma Corporation, and the Export and Investment
Fund of Denmark (EIFO), a financing fund backed by the Danish
government, join Draupnir’s existing investors, Gilde Healthcare
Partners, Inkef Capital and Novo Holdings, investing a total of €12
million into the Company.
The proceeds from the financing will be used to
further develop Draupnir’s risk-diversified preclinical pipeline of
oral, small molecule protein degraders, which have been proven
against targets that are validated and those that have been
traditionally difficult to drug.
Andrew Hotchkiss, Chief Executive
Officer of Draupnir Bio, said: “Draupnir has a bold
ambition to pioneer the next frontier of extracellular protein
degradation. Our novel technology platform targeting extracellular
and membrane-bound disease proteins for degradation holds great
promise for targets that have previously been difficult to target
with small molecules or have been undruggable, and enables the
development of new therapeutic approaches for complex conditions.
We are delighted to welcome MP Healthcare and the Export and
Investment Fund of Denmark as investors in the Company and thank
our existing investors, Gilde Healthcare Partners, Inkef Capital
and Novo Holdings, for their continued support.”
- ENDS -
For more information, please
contact:
Draupnir BioAndrew Hotchkiss,
Chief Executive Officerinfo@draupnir.bio
ICR ConsiliumDavid Daley,
Kumail Waljee, Emmalee HoppePhone: +44 (0)20 3709 5700Email:
draupnirbio@icrhealthcare.com
About Draupnir BioDraupnir Bio
is a Danish biotechnology company harnessing the natural machinery
of the lysosome to develop oral, small molecule degraders of
extracellular disease-causing proteins – the next frontier of
targeted protein degradation (TPD), a rapidly emerging field that
exploits a cell’s own destruction machinery to tackle
disease-causing proteins that have historically been highly
challenging to target with conventional therapies. Led by a highly
experienced team of pharma and biotech industry leaders, the
Company was spun-out from Aarhus University, Denmark and the
Max-Planck Society. Backed by a syndicate of leading investors,
including the Export and Investment Fund of Denmark (EIFO), Gilde
Healthcare Partners, Inkef Capital, Novo Holdings and MP Healthcare
Venture Management, Draupnir is headquartered in Copenhagen, with
research operations centred in Aarhus, Denmark.
For more, visit our website at draupnir.bio and
follow us on LinkedIn.