Spun out of King’s College London, AviadoBio is focusing on neurodegenerative diseases and has emerged from stealth with nearly $100m in overall funding.
AviadoBio, a UK-based neurodegenerative gene therapy developer spun out King’s College London, picked up $80m in a series A round co-led by New Enterprise Associates and Monograph Capital yesterday.
Johnson & Johnson Innovation – JJDC and F-Prime Capital, respective vehicles for healthcare group Johnson & Johnson and financial services provider Fidelity, contributed to the round, as did LSP, Advent Life Sciences, Dementia Discovery Fund (DDF) and LifeArc.
Founded in 2019, AviadoBio is working on gene therapies for neurodegenerative conditions including frontotemporal dementia (FTD) and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS).
The spinout is based on research by Prof Christopher Shaw, Youn Bok Lee and Doyoung Lee at King’s College London, with support from the Dementia Research Institute. It was incubated by JJDC and F-Prime Capital.
The series A financing will allow AviadoBio to advance its lead asset, targeting FTD, into the clinic, progress its preclinical pipeline and grow its headcount.
MattMcAviney, partner at New Enterprise Associates, and Tim Funnell, partner at Monograph Capital, will join the board of directors. Amber Salzman will join as an independent board member, while Prof Philip Sheltens will serve as an observer on behalf of LSP.
AviadoBio concurrently revealed it had raised $16.5m in a seed round from JJDC, F-Prime Capital, Advent Life Sciences, DDF and LifeArc. Regulatory documents indicate that capital was secured between September 2020 and April 2021.
Shaw, co-founder and chief scientific and clinical adviser of AviadoBio, said: “Whilst neurodegenerative conditions are focal at onset, the pathology eventually spreads throughout the nervous system. We have seen that modifying gene expression can be curative, but achieving widespread distribution is the greatest challenge.
“We have shown that precision micro-dosing to neural networks will deliver broad CNS expression, providing safe and effective treatments.
“We are directly exploiting insights into the causes of diseases to design therapies that have the potential to cure patients for whom there are no effective treatments. I believe that AviadoBio has the potential to move neurodegeneration from palliation to prevention.”
Shaw added: “AviadoBio’s unique platform combines next-generation gene therapy design with deep neuroscience expertise and a novel neuroanatomy-led approach to drug delivery. Precision micro-dosing achieves extensive gene expression throughout the nervous system, maximizing the therapeutic potential for patients living with devastating neurological diseases.”
