From left: Inflazome’s Dr Manus Rogan, chair; Dr Matt Cooper, co-founder and CEO; Prof Luke O’Neill, co-founder and chief scientific officer; and Dr Jeremy Skillington, vice-president of business development. Image: Nick Bradshaw
Inflazome is pioneering a new drug to combat a wide range of inflammatory diseases.
Inflazome has raised Series B funding worth €40m in a round led by Forbion Capital Partners, with participation from Longitude Capital alongside founding investors Novartis Venture Fund and Fountain Healthcare Partners.
Headquartered in Dublin, Inflazome also has offices in Cambridge in the UK.
‘Recognising the important role of the inflammasome in many major diseases, we intensively screened the universe of companies active in this space’
– DR MARCO BOORSMA
Inflazome is pioneering small-molecule drugs that block harmful inflammation in a broad range of serious medical conditions including Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, inflammatory bowel disease, gout and osteoarthritis, as well as liver, kidney and cardiovascular diseases.
Clinical and scientific data indicates that the NLRP3 inflammasome, a compelling biological target that regulates our innate immune response, is overactive in a broad range of serious medical conditions driven by harmful inflammation. The start-up is developing potent and selective small-molecule inhibitors of the NLRP3 inflammasome to stop the cycle of chronic inflammation that drives such diseases.
Chemical connection
The Series B round will be used to advance the company’s first-in-class NLRP3 inflammasome inhibitors into multiple clinical trials in 2019, with next-generation compounds following thereafter.
“Recognising the important role of the inflammasome in many major diseases, we intensively screened the universe of companies active in this space,” said Dr Marco Boorsma, general partner at Forbion Capital Partners.
“We decided to back Inflazome because of their leading position, deep understanding of inflammasome biology, foundational IP position, and advanced and diversified pipeline of NLRP3 modulators.”
Inflazome was founded in 2016 by leading academics Dr Matt Cooper of the University of Queensland and Prof Luke O’Neill of Trinity College Dublin following a highly productive joint collaboration.
“We are very pleased to have secured a partnership with leading EU and US investors Forbion and Longitude, and additional support from our founding investors, Novartis Venture Fund and Fountain Healthcare Partners,” Cooper said. “Forbion and Longitude have excellent track records of working closely with biotechs to drive R&D programmes to successful clinical outcomes.”
