Novoron Bioscience, a San Diego-based biotechnology company developing first-in-class therapies to reverse central nervous system (CNS) damage, announced today that they secured a $3 millionSeed investment from Two Bear Capital (TBC). Funding will be used to develop Novoron’s leading drug candidate, NOVO-118, which has shown the potential to both promote axonal regeneration and repair of the myelin sheath. Novoron already raised seed funding from Backstage Capital and $3 million in grant funding from the National Institutes of Health.
Novoron’s unique technology allows for the development of therapies against a family of receptors long considered prohibitively difficult for drug development. In addition to the potential for treating CNS conditions and diseases, Novoron’s technology can potentially impact a variety of diseases related to the LDLR receptor family, such as cardiac remodeling, cancer, and ophthalmic disease. Novoron’s most advanced program is in spinal cord injury (SCI) where recent in vivo studies showed that treatment with NOVO-118 demonstrated significant improvement in motor function after SCI. Novoron is also developing NOVO-118 as a putative treatment to promote remyelination in demyelinating diseases such as multiple sclerosis (MS).
“It was important to us that we partner with investors who are passionate about CNS treatments and excited about the journey ahead and we met that goal with TBC,” said Travis Stiles, PhD, CEO and Co-Founder of Novoron. “Working with TBC has already proven valuable in shaping our future direction and catalyzing more rapid innovation.” Novoron is finalizing pre-clinical proof of concept studies for NOVO-118 in both MS and SCI, and on track to enter clinical trials within the next three years.
“With two neuroscientists on the TBC investment team, we are absolutely committed to finding and funding the most promising solutions to neurological disorders and Novoron quickly met that bar,” said Mike Goguen, TBC’s Founder and Managing Partner. “Novoron’s technology is truly groundbreaking, and we are excited to be a part of Travis’s efforts to address one of the most difficult problem sets in medicine.” Goguen will join Novoron’s Board of Directors.
Approximately 300,000 people in the United States live with a SCI and around 18,000 new cases are added each year. In addition, MS, an autoimmune disease of the central nervous system, affects nearly 3 million people worldwide. Both MS and SCI most commonly occur in young adults and results in a significantly decreased quality of life and an enormous economic burden. There are currently no therapies for either condition that reverses the damage and restores lost function from the damaged neural tissue.
About Novoron
Based in San Diego, California, Novoron Bioscience is a private biotechnology company that is focused on the development of novel therapeutics for central nervous system disorders.
About Two Bear Capital
Two Bear Capital (TBC) was founded and is led by veteran Silicon Valley venture capitalist and philanthropist Michael Goguen. TBC invests in the most promising early-stage companies working at the intersections of healthcare, biotechnology, bioinformatics, artificial intelligence/machine learning, and cybersecurity to solve some of today’s most urgent problems. TBC’s investment team is based in Whitefish, Montana; the San Francisco Bay area; San Diego; and Boston. To learn more, visit www.twobearcapital.com and follow TBC on LinkedIn.
Contact: Brett Drummond
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SOURCE Two Bear Capital
