UCB and Roche were among the investors in a Deerfield Management-led series B round that pushed the orphan disease treatment developer's total VC funding to $48m.
Lumos Pharma, a US-based developer of treatments for orphan diseases, closed a $34m series B round on Wednesday featuring pharmaceutical companies UCB and Roche.
Investment firm Deerfield Management led the round, which included venture capital firms Clarus Ventures, New Enterprise Associates (NEA) and Sante Ventures. Roche participated through its Roche Venture Fund subsidiary.
Lumos is working on therapeutics for severe, rare and genetic diseases and will use the money to advance its lead compound, LUM-001, a treatment for creatine transporter deficiency, through clinical trials while also developing additional product candidates.
The company previously raised $14m in a February 2014 series A round co-led by Sante Ventures and NEA before Wellcome Trust awarded it with $5.5m of grant funding in May 2015.
Rick Hawkins, Lumos Pharma’s chief executive, said: “We are pleased to have the support of such a distinguished group of investors who share our enthusiasm about the opportunity to develop an effective therapeutic for creatine transporter deficiency.
“We believe we are uniquely qualified to tackle this challenge and develop additional therapies that will help patients with rare diseases.”
