Mitochondrial therapeutics company Vandria today announced the second closing of its Series A financing bringing the final amount raised to date to $30.7 million (CHF 28.3 million). 

Vandria is developing first-in-class small molecule mitophagy inducers against a novel target to rejuvenate cells and treat age-related and chronic diseases.

Specifically Vandria discovers and develops inhibitors of a novel target that results in both the induction of mitophagy — the selective removal and replacement of damaged mitochondria — and anti-inflammatory effects. The target has strong genetic links to several human diseases.

VNA-318 Is being developed for patients with early-stage CNS and neurodegenerative disorders and is intended to improve cognition and limit memory loss progression. 

In addition to VNA-318, Vandria has a pipeline of other mitophagy-inducing small molecules to address unmet medical need in muscle, lung, and liver diseases.

Hevolution Foundation and Dolby Family Ventures joined the lead founding venture investor ND Capital. Jens Eckstein, Investment Partner at Hevolution Foundation, will join Vandria’s board of directors.

Jens Eckstein, Investment Partner Hevolution Foundation said:

“We are excited by the potential of mitophagy as a new therapeutic approach with strong disease-modifying effects for an ageing world population that faces cognitive impairment, Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s disease. 

Vandria’s pipeline offers even wider potential to address other age-related and chronic diseases of the muscle, lung and liver.”

Sourav Kole, Managing Director, Dolby Family Ventures said:

 “Given the association of mitophagy to neurodegeneration and other disorders and Vandria’s robust preclinical dataset in showing neuroprotective effects and the potential to improve cognition, we are delighted to invest in the company to demonstrate this potential via clinical studies.”

Since the first Series A close in December Vandria has further developed its platform and portfolio, and advanced its lead program, VNA-318. The company has also expanded its team and moved to dedicated lab facilities at Superlab Suisse on the Biopôle Lausanne campus.

In addition to the equity financing, Vandria has secured CHF4.2M in prestigious non-dilutive funding: two Innosuisse grants to support VNA-318 and an Eurostars grant to support the generation of pre-clinical data for mitophagy drug candidates in Vandria’s muscle program.

Klaus Dugi, CEO of Vandria, said: 

“I am delighted to welcome Hevolution Foundation and Dolby Family Ventures, alongside ND Capital, to support our transformation into a clinical stage company. 

This Financing will enable us to progress further in clinical development with runway from Series A to complete the Single Ascending Dose (SAD) and Multiple Ascending Dose (MAD) first-in-man Phase 1 study of VNA-318 and to initiate three parallel Phase 1b / 2a efficacy studies in 2025, subject to positive progress in the Phase 1 and regulatory approvals.”

Image: Freepik.