Novoron Bioscience, a biotech startup based in San Diego, has secured $4.3 million in seed funding to develop novel therapies to treat central nervous system damage.
The funding was provided by Two Bear Capital, a venture capital firm led by Michael Goguen which specializes in early-stage companies aiming to bring technology and health together. The capital raised in the round comes after Novorn’s successfully raised an undisclosed amount from Backstage Capital and a $3million grant from the National Institutes of Health.
Novorn plans to use the new funding to accelerate the development of its leading drug candidate. Travis Stiles, PhD, CEO and Co-Founder of Novoron, referred to the round by stating:
“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. 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.
Novoron Bioscience was founded with the mission to develop therapeutics for conditions with no effective treatment, such as acute spinal cord injury, multiple sclerosis, glaucoma, TBI, and tauopathies. The startup aims to achieve this by using alternative models such as the use of receptor-specific compounds via optimized intravenous delivery. Mike Goguen, TBC’s Founder and Managing Partner, said about the startup’s technology:
“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. 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.”
The Harvard NeuroDiscovery Center estimates that neurodegenerative diseases could affect more than 13 million Americans by 2030, which makes “Finding treatments and cures for neurodegenerative diseases is a goal of increasing urgency”. Novoron aims to change this prediction by developing an effective therapy to reverse nerve damage and restore lost function, effectively allowing to fight these conditions.
