NEW YORK – Coave Therapeutics on Thursday said it has raised €32 million ($33 million) in Series A financing, which it will use to advance its proprietary platform for delivering genetic payloads to extra-hepatic tissues.
The financing was co-led by Novo Holdings and Bpifrance and included participation from Invus and UI Investissement, as well as existing investors Seroba Life Sciences, Fund+, Kurma Partners, Omnes Capital, and Turenne Capital. As part of the financing, Emmanuelle Coutanceau from Novo Holdings and Jean Francois Morin from Bpifrance will join Coave's board of directors.
According to the Paris-based genetics medicines company, its drug delivery platform, ALIGATER, which stands for Advanced Vectors-Ligand Conjugates, can overcome the limitations of other platforms in terms of limited tissue specificity, inefficient delivery, and safety. ALIGATER can conjugate targeting ligands, including small molecules, peptides, and antibody fragments, on adeno-associated viral vectors or nonviral vectors, and streamline manufacturing by avoiding previous modifications to AAV capsids, according to Coave.
The proceeds from the Series A financing will enable Coave to advance this platform and use it to "develop best-in-class gene therapies designed for specific indications," the company said in a statement. The firm added that it will also use the raised funds to advance its assets in preclinical development for treating central nervous system, neuromuscular, and eye diseases toward the clinic. Specifically, Coave has ambitions to move two preclinical candidates toward clinical trial application- or investigational new drug application-enabling studies in 2026.
In 2023, Coave shared encouraging 12-month data from a Phase I/II trial of CTx-PDE6b, its gene therapy for retinitis pigmentosa caused by certain mutations in the PDE6b gene. Then, last year, with 24-month data on the gene therapy's activity in hand, Coave subsidiary EyeDNA said it would consult regulators and define a regulatory path forward for the gene therapy.
"Coave, with its ALIGATER platform for creating a new class of targeted gene therapies, has the potential to deliver groundbreaking new treatments to patients in need," Morin, investment director at Bpifrance – InnoBio Funds, said in a statement. "With this Series A financing and a top-tier team, Coave will be able to progress its pipeline of internal programs."