Novartis Venture Funds, along with Novo Ventures, led a $16 million funding round of a San Diego pharmaceutical startup Thesan Pharmaceuticals.
The series A financing will be used to develop new approaches in treating inflammatory skin disorders.
“For many years, drug development in the dermatology field has been dominated by old drugs just reformulated into more cosmetically appealing foams, gels or lotions,” said Gordon Foulkes, Thesan’s executive chairman and CEO, in a news release. “Thesan’s mission is to develop new chemical entities with novel mechanisms of action in order to substantially improve treatment outcomes for patients with a variety of dermatological diseases.”
Thesan, based in San Diego, has licensed the technology from the University of California, Irvine and the products have been developed in the laboratory of professor Daniele Piomelli, Louise Turner Arnold Chair of Neurosciences at UCI and the director of Drug Discovery and Development at the Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia (IIT) in Italy.
“A novel mechanism of action with dramatic efficacy, coupled with such solid chemistry is a great starting point for the formation of a new company,” said Giovanni Ferrara, venture partner at Novartis Venture Funds, in Thesan’s news release. “Combined with a world-class team, it made for a compelling investment.”
