Startups, Pharma

Firm targeting potential bacterial role in Alzheimer’s gets $76 million Series B

Cortexyme has also finished enrolling healthy volunteers in the Phase I study of lead candidate COR388.

Dementia or brain damage and injury as a mental health and neurology medical symbol with a thinking human organ made of crumpled paper torn in pieces as a creative concept for alzheimer disease.

A company developing therapeutics for Alzheimer’s disease and other degenerative illnesses has raised $76 million in a Series B funding round.

Cortexyme, based in South San Francisco, California, said Thursday that it had raised the Series B round from a pool of new investors including Sequoia Capital, Vulcan Capital, Verily Life Sciences, EPIQ Capital Group, RSL Investments, Huizenga Capital and a large long-term mutual fund. The round’s new participants join existing investors Pfizer, Takeda Ventures, the Lamond Family, Breakout Ventures and Dolby Family Ventures. The company raised $15 million in a Series A round in January 2016.

The company is developing COR388, an orally administered bacterial protease inhibitor that targets an antigen in the brains of Alzheimer’s patients that Cortexyme co-founder and Chief Scientific Officer Stephen Dominy discovered. COR388 is designed to inhibit the pathogen in a way that broad-spectrum antibiotics cannot, according to the company.

Bacterial infections’ potential role in Alzheimer’s disease has been the subject of research for several years. A 2016 paper, for example, showed evidence that the amyloid-beta peptide – a key protein in Alzheimer’s pathology – protects against fungal and bacterial infections in mouse, nematode and cell culture models, with salmonella infection of the brain resulting in rapid development of the protein.

In conjunction with the Series B announcement, Cortexyme said it completed of its Phase I study of COR388 in healthy volunteers aged 20-70. Given the favorable pharmacokinetic profile, the company plans to start a Phase II study in Alzheimer’s patients next year. The Phase I study began enrolling in January and also includes a cohort of Alzheimer’s patients in addition to the healthy volunteers, according to the ClinicalTrials.gov database.

A September 2017 report by GlobalData found that the Alzheimer’s disease market, worth $2.9 billion in 2016, is set to jump in value to $14.8 billion in 2026. The report attributed the forecasted rapid growth to the introduction of 20 new drug candidates, some of which have shown potential to prevent or slow the disease’s progression.

Photo: wildpixel, Getty Images

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