Spinverse helped Herantis Pharma secure EIC Accelerator funding to prepare Phase 2 in their treatment for Parkinson’s disease
Herantis Pharma Plc (“Herantis), a company developing disease-modifying therapies for Parkinson’s disease, announced the signing of a grant agreement with the European Innovation Council Accelerator. The funding will launch project ReTreatPD, which will focus on preparations towards a Phase 2 clinical study with HER-096 in conjunction with Parkinson’s disease. The project includes development of biomarkers for monitoring target engagement and treatment response to HER-096 molecule.
The recently signed two-year project was granted 2.5 M€ with eligibility for Herantis to negotiate up to 15 M€ in direct equity investments from EIC Fund.
“Qualifying for this highly competitive funding scheme is a great recognition of the HER-096 development. The grant allows us to start preparations for the next development phase for HER-096 earlier than anticipated. We are especially delighted to advance our biomarker development with this funding as recent developments have shown that biomarkers play an increasingly important role in clinical trial design for CNS drug candidates,” said Antti Vuolanto, the CEO of Herantis Pharma. He continues: “There is a huge unmet medical need for disease-modifying therapies for Parkinson’s today. Based on the preclinical evidence, HER-096 has the potential to slow down or even stop the disease progression, which the currently available treatments cannot do.”
Spinverse funding experts supported Herantis in preparing the successful grant application and coached the Herantis team for their pitch. Antti Vuolanto is very pleased with the collaboration with Spinverse. “The biggest benefit in working with Spinverse was that they are very familiar with the application process and advised us on how to formulate our project to meet EIC Accelerator’s expectations and requirements. Spinverse also challenged us to focus on the right things in our project, which for its part led to the successful outcome.”
About HER-096
HER-096 is a peptidomimetic molecule designed to retain the biological activity of the neuroprotective CDNF protein. HER-096 has demonstrated to have a multimodal mechanism of action mimicking CDNF and to improve functional recovery of damaged neurons in preclinical models. Importantly, HER-096 has been shown to readily penetrate the blood-brain barrier in preclinical studies allowing convenient subcutaneous dosing. Thanks to its multimodal mechanism of action, Herantis’ HER-096 has the potential to stop the progression of Parkinson’s disease and significantly improve patients’ quality of life.
Company website: www.herantis.com