Forbion, a leading European life science venture capital firm has announced that it has led a Series B financing round of €40 million ($46 million) in Inflazome, a pioneering inflammasome company developing small molecule drugs that block harmful inflammation. Forbion invested from its recently launched Forbion IV Fund. Longitude Capital and founding investors, Novartis Venture Fund and Fountain Healthcare Partners also participated in the round.

Clinical and scientific data indicates that the NLRP₃ inflammasome, a compelling biological target that regulates our innate immune response, is overactive in a broad range of serious medical conditions driven by harmful inflammation. These include neurological disorders such as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s, cardiovascular diseases, arthritis, liver inflammation and asthma; conditions often inadequately treated by current therapies.

Inflazome is developing potent and selective small-molecule inhibitors of the NLRP₃ inflammasome, to stop the cycle of chronic inflammation that drives such diseases. The Series B proceeds will be used to advance the Company’s first-in-class NLRP₃ inflammasome inhibitors into multiple clinical trials in 2019, with next-generation compounds following thereafter.

Following the completion of the financing round, Dr Marco Boorsma, a General Partner at Forbion, and Dr David Hirsch, a Managing Director and Founder of Longitude Capital, have joined Inflazome’s Board of Directors.

Dr Marco Boorsma, General Partner at Forbion Capital Partners, commented: “Recognizing the important role of the inflammasome in many major diseases, we intensively screened the universe of companies active in this space. We decided to back Inflazome because of their leading position, deep understanding of inflammasome biology, foundational IP position and advanced and diversified pipeline of NLRP₃ modulators. We were also highly impressed with the experience and knowledge of the Company’s Management Team and Board.”

Dr Matt Cooper, Co-Founder and CEO of Inflazome, commented: “We are very pleased to have secured a new partnership with leading EU and US investors Forbion and Longitude and additional support from our founding investors, Novartis Venture Fund and Fountain Healthcare Partners. Both Forbion and Longitude have excellent track records of working closely with biotechs to drive R&D programs to successful clinical outcomes.”