Leuven, Belgium-based Augustine Therapeutics NV, a biotechnology company, has secured €77.7M in an oversubscribed Series A funding round co-led by Novo Holdings and Jeito Capital.
Existing investors, including Asabys Partners, Eli Lilly and Company, AdBio partners, V-Bio Ventures, PMV, VIB, Gemma Frisius Fund, the US-based Charcot-Marie-Tooth (CMT) Research Foundation and Newton Biocapital, participated in the round.
The company will use the funds to support the clinical development of lead candidate AGT-100216 for the treatment of Charcot-Marie-Tooth (CMT) disease, with Phase I trials starting imminently.
Beyond AGT-100216, Augustine has two other programs in discovery targeting peripherally restricted and blood-brain barrier-penetrant HDAC6i for undisclosed neurodegenerative and cardio-metabolic indications.
Emmanuelle Coutanceau, PhD, Partner at Seed Investments, Novo Holdings, and Mehdi Ainouche, PharmD, Senior Principal at Jeito Capital have joined Augustine Therapeutics’ Board of Directors.
Annette Clancy, Operational Investor at Jeito Capital, and Marie Schroeder, PhD, Vice President at Seed Investments, Novo Holdings will join as Board Observers.
Gerhard Koenig, PhD, CEO of Augustine says, “This significant financing is a testament to the innovative medicinal chemistry that Augustine was founded on, which acts via a unique mechanism of action. The therapeutic potential of HDAC6 is widely recognized in our industry, but previous drug approaches have been sub-optimal, particularly for chronic diseases. At Augustine, we believe we have solved these challenges with a novel non-hydroxamate, non-hydrazide producing chemotype which is highly selective and avoids the typical limitations of prior chemotypes, unlocking HDAC6 inhibition as a therapeutic approach.”
Augustine Therapeutics: Treating Neuromuscular, neurodegenerative & cardio-metabolic diseases
Augustine Therapeutics focuses on the treatment of neuromuscular, neurodegenerative, and cardio-metabolic diseases through its next-generation approach to selectively inhibit HDAC6.
Augustine’s HDAC6 inhibitors have been purposefully designed to selectively inhibit HDAC6 while preserving its beneficial non-catalytic functions.
Augustine’s lead program, AGT-100216, is the first selective HDAC6 inhibitor for long-term treatment of Charcot-Marie-Tooth (CMT) disease.
With its novel non-hydroxamate, non-hydrazide-producing chemotype, Augustine’s HDAC6 approach is selective, avoids the limitations of other chemotypes, and is built for chronic diseases.
With this novel approach, the Company will also be targeting diseases beyond CMT, including neurodegenerative and cardio-metabolic diseases.
“We now look forward to rapidly advancing our lead candidate into clinical trials for the treatment of CMT, while broadening the potential for our candidates to change treatment paradigms for neurological and cardio-metabolic diseases. I would like to thank our new and existing investors for their unwavering support as we continue to advance into clinical development,” adds Koenig.
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