Clinical Trials to assess Candidate for Crohn’s Disease

Biopharmaceutical company CVasThera, specialising in therapies for cardiovascular and bowel pathologies, has secured €1.3 million ($1.6M) in its first funding round that will be used to finance the preclinical trials for its CVT120165 compound, a drug candidate in the treatment of Crohn's disease. Safety data is already available from phase I trials involving healthy volunteers, which were conducted in 2008 in another indication. The company plans to proceed directly to a pilot phase II trial with Crohn’s patients in 2022.

The primary investor is OCSEED, a venture capital company supporting start-ups in the Occitanie region of France; working capital from the company’s founders, an investment loan from Bpifrance, funding from the Occitanie region and a contract with the countries Agence Nationale de la Recherch Agency, are also providing financial input.

“OCSEED is committed to financing local startups in the early stages of their business ventures. We look for a leverage effect of at least three (top and bottom line), as is the case with CVasThera,” said Thierry Merquiol, CEO of OCSEED. “The company’s highly skilled team and its ability to run a successful preclinical phase were key factors in our decision. CVasThera also fits well into our intervention strategy, namely to support and finance essential development work.”

“For R&D work like ours to advance, it is essential to have funding at the preclinical trial stage,” said Bruno Le Grand, CEO and co-founder of CVasThera. “These funds will enable us to achieve a key milestone: preliminary evidence of the efficacy of our compound in Crohn’s patients.”

CVT120165 promotes repair of targeted intestinal tissue.