Rivus Pharmaceuticals, Inc., a Charlottesville, Va.-based biopharmaceutical company dedicated to improving cardio-metabolic health, closed a $35m Series A financing.
The round was co-led by Longitude Capital and Medicxi and RxCapital also participated.
The company intends to use the funds to advance a pipeline of CMA therapies to treat a range of metabolic conditions including type 2 diabetes, severe hypertriglyceridemia (SHTG), non-alcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH), as well as cardiovascular diseases such as heart failure with preserved ejection fraction (HFpEF).
Led by Allen Cunningham, President and CEO, Rivus is advancing a new class of oral, once daily, small molecule therapeutics called Controlled Metabolic Accelerators (CMAs), designed to improve cellular metabolism and treat the underlying cause of highly-prevalent metabolic and cardiovascular diseases. CMAs provide a new, measured approach to activating mitochondrial uncoupling, a natural process in the body that regulates and dissipates energy. By ferrying protons out of the mitochondrial intermembrane space, CMAs cue the increased oxidation of sugars and fats, while maintaining the same baseline production of adenosine triphosphate (ATP). Activating this process results in the reduction of accumulated fat and the prevention of additional fat accumulation throughout the body.
The company is currently conducting a Phase 2a clinical study with its lead CMA therapeutic, HU6.
FinSMEs
22/07/2021