EvlaBio Secures 21 Million Euros in Seed Financing Round

(CONNECT) Life Sciences start-up EvlaBio, which develops therapies for the treatment of left ventricular hypertrophy (LVH) in patients with chronic kidney disease (CKD), has secured 21 million euros in a seed financing round, according to a press release. EvlaBio AG, based in Zurich and Düsseldorf, intends to use this to further develop its lead product, a monoclonal antibody that inhibits the pathological FGF23/FGFR4 cardiac signaling axis. Pathological signaling is one of the main causes of LVH, which can lead to heart failure.

"Blocking the cardiac FGF23/FGFR4 overdrive has the great potential to become a promising treatment option for millions of patients at high risk of cardiac remodeling and progression to heart failure in CKD," Thomas Kirmeier, COO and co-founder of EvlaBio, is quoted in the press release.

The capital will enable the start-up to complete the preclinical development of the antibody and to work towards studies for Investigational New Drugs (IND). The seed financing round was led by Kurma Partners, AdBio Partners, Boehringer Ingelheim Venture Fund, NRW.Venture and HTGF . "The team's scientific knowledge and their compelling preclinical data allow them to address cardiac hypertrophy in CKD patients - a previously unsolved medical problem that affects millions of people worldwide," says Hadrien Bouchez, Partner at Kurma Partners.

EvlaBio has its origins in the Lead Discovery Center GmbH, which was founded in 2008 by Max Planck Innovation and developed in collaboration with KHAN Technology Transfer Fund I GmbH & Co KG (KHANI). The company aims to reform treatment paradigms for CKD patients with therapeutics for cardiovascular and cardiorenal diseases. ce/yes