HORSHAM, Pa.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Palladio Biosciences, Inc. (Palladio), a privately-held, clinical stage biopharmaceutical company developing medicines for orphan diseases of the kidney, announced today the completion of a $20 million Series B investment. The financing was led by new investor, Samsara BioCapital, with participation from new investor, the Roche Venture Fund and existing investors, Medicxi and Osage University Partners. Proceeds from the financing will fund Palladio’s Phase 3 ALERT Study and advance operations.
Srinivas Akkaraju M.D, Ph.D, Managing General Partner of Samsara BioCapital, stated, "We are very excited about our investment in Palladio to support the development of lixivaptan, a drug that has the potential to deliver a meaningful therapeutic advancement in the treatment of Autosomal Dominant Polycystic Kidney Disease (ADPKD). The ALERT Study is an important step in assessing the safety differential of lixivaptan.”
“We are very pleased that Samsara and the Roche Venture Fund recognize the opportunity lixivaptan represents to patients suffering from ADPKD, and we are glad to be working with these new partners to further develop this important therapy,” said Francesco De Rubertis, co-founder and Partner at Medicxi.
Alex Martin, Chief Executive Officer of Palladio, added, "We are focused on developing our lead candidate, lixivaptan, for the treatment of ADPKD, an orphan disease with a significant unmet medical need that can impact many generations of a family. This Series B financing will fund our ALERT Study, a Phase 3 trial designed to assess the safety of lixivaptan in ADPKD patients who showed liver chemistry abnormalities or other signs of liver toxicity while taking tolvaptan, the only drug currently approved in the United States for the treatment of ADPKD. We are grateful for the support of the investment community in helping us advance this potential new drug and we welcome Samsara and the Roche Venture Fund to Palladio.”
Palladio is currently enrolling ADPKD patients into The ALERT Study (PA-ADPKD-303), the Company’s first Phase 3 clinical trial for lixivaptan. In this study, ADPKD patients between the ages of 18-65, who had been permanently discontinued from tolvaptan therapy due to liver chemistry abnormalities or other signs of liver toxicity, will be treated with lixivaptan for up to 58 weeks. The primary objective of the study is to determine the liver safety of lixivaptan in these patients. Visit Safety of Lixivaptan in Subjects Previously Treated With Tolvaptan for Autosomal Dominant Polycystic Kidney Disease (ALERT) for more information.
About Palladio Biosciences, Inc.
Palladio Biosciences is a privately-held, clinical stage biopharmaceutical company developing medicines for orphan diseases of the kidney. Palladio is developing its lead drug, lixivaptan, for Autosomal Dominant Polycystic Kidney Disease (ADPKD), an orphan kidney disease for which there are limited treatment options. Lixivaptan is a potent, selective vasopressin V2 receptor antagonist, a mechanism of action that has clinical proof of concept to slow kidney function decline in adults at risk of rapidly progressing ADPKD. It has successfully completed a Phase 2 clinical trial, The ELiSA Study, in patients with ADPKD, and has also been successfully administered to a patient who had previously been unable to take tolvaptan due to liver enzyme increases under an expanded access program. Lixivaptan is for investigational use only. For more information, please visit our website at Palladio.
Polycystic Kidney Disease (PKD) Key Facts and Figures
PKD is an inherited genetic disease that affects up to 600,000 people in the United States and millions globally. It is estimated that approximately 140,000 people in the United States have been diagnosed with ADPKD, the most common type of PKD. A person with ADPKD has a 50 percent chance of passing the disease on to each of his or her children. The disease is characterized by uncontrolled growth of fluid-filled cysts in the kidney, which can each grow to be as large as a football. Symptoms often include kidney infections and pain. The continued enlargement of cysts and replacement of normal kidney tissue causes irreversible loss of renal function. Every year there are approximately 2,500 new PKD patients in the United States who require dialysis or a kidney transplant, making PKD the fourth leading cause of kidney failure. There is no cure for PKD.
About Samsara BioCapital
Samsara BioCapital is a new breed of biotech investment fund focused on translating cutting-edge biology into new therapies to treat patients with unmet medical needs. Founded in 2016 by Srinivas Akkaraju, MD, PhD, our team of scientists, investors, and entrepreneurs takes a long-term view to value creation across all stages of public and private life science companies. We believe in a collaborative, hands-on approach, working closely with entrepreneurs to harness exciting scientific advances and build leading companies. Samsara actively manages approximately US$410 million in assets on behalf of endowments, foundations, and family offices. For more information, visit Samsara.
About the Roche Venture Fund
The Roche Venture Fund invests in early stage biotech and diagnostics companies to develop commercially successful innovative life science companies. Based in Basel, Switzerland with an office in South San Francisco, the Roche Venture Fund invests globally with a portfolio of over 40 companies. For more information, please visit Roche Venture Fund.
About Medicxi
Medicxi is a European venture capital firm with the mission to create and invest in companies along the full drug development continuum. Medicxi was established by the former Index Ventures life sciences team, which has been active for over 20 years, and invests in both early and late-stage assets with a product vision that can fulfil a clear unmet need. GSK, Johnson & Johnson Innovation – JJDC, Inc., Novartis and Verily (an Alphabet company) have invested in Medicxi funds.
For more information, please visit us at Medicxi and follow us on Twitter (@medicxi).
About Osage University Partners
OUP (Osage University Partners) is a venture capital firm focused on investing in startups that are commercializing pioneering university technologies. OUP partners with top research universities to invest in their most innovative startups, and OUP shares its investment profit with its partner institutions. The firm invests in software, hardware, and life science companies at all stages of company development. OUP has partnered with over 100 universities, including 42 of the top 50 U.S. institutions by research expenditures, and has invested in over 100 of their spinouts. OUP is part of a family of investment funds within Osage Partners, which is based in Philadelphia, PA and manages in excess of $800 million. For more information, visit OUP.
