Startups, Pharma, BioPharma

Versanis Bio unveils $70M and a Novartis drug ready for Phase 2 test in obesity

Novartis was unsuccessful developing bimagrumab as a treatment for a rare muscle disorder, but additional tests showed encouraging results in fat reduction. Startup Versanis Bio licensed rights to the antibody and plans to use its Series A financing for clinical trials testing the drug in obese patients.

 

A Novartis drug that fell short as a treatment for a rare muscle disorder now has a second shot as a potential treatment for obesity. Versanis Bio licensed rights to the drug and the startup has raised $70 million for mid-stage clinical testing.

The Series A financing announced Tuesday was led by Atlas Venture and Medicxi. Aditum Bio, the investment firm that founded Versanis, also invested in the Oakland-based startup.

The drug, bimagrumab, was initially developed by Novartis in collaboration with MorphoSys. Bimagrumab is an antibody designed to bind to activin receptor type II, part of a family of receptors involved in various cell functions. Binding to this receptor was intended to block the binding of inhibitory molecules.

Novartis developed bimagrumab as a treatment for a range of muscle-wasting disorders. In 2016, Novartis and MorphoSys reported that the drug fell short in a Phase 2b/3 study in sporadic inclusion body myositis, a rare disorder that leads to progressive muscle weakening.

Bimagrumab was tested by Novartis and MorphoSys in more than 1,500 people, showing that the drug is safe. Despite the failure in muscle disorders, Novartis continued clinical tests of the drug to learn more. One of those studies was a placebo-controlled Phase 2 clinical trial enrolling 75 individuals with type 2 diabetes whose body mass index falls within the range of obesity. The results showed a significant loss in fat mass and an increase in lean mass. Metabolic improvements were also reported over the course of the 48-week study. The results were published earlier this year in JAMA Network Open.

Versanis will now aim to replicate the results of the Novartis study. The startup plans to use the Series A cash to finance a comprehensive Phase 2 clinical trial to assess the drug’s ability to help obese patients lose fat.

“As people age, loss of muscle mass makes it even harder to lose weight,” Versanis CEO Lloyd Klickstein said in a prepared statement. “All existing obesity treatments risk further loss of muscle, together with fat. Bimagrumab is a unique therapy that builds muscle while markedly reducing fat, providing a potential breakthrough in the obesity epidemic.”

Versanis is the fifth company formed by Aditum since it came out of stealth late last year. Co-founded by former Novartis executives Joe Jimenez and Mark Fishman, Aditum’s model is to in-license drug assets that have fallen down on the priority list of large pharma companies, and then form startups to pick up development of those drugs. Aditum brings software and technology to the task; it has a partnership with TrialSpark, a New York-based startup whose software manages various aspects of clinical trials, such as patient recruitment and data collection.

Photo: Pakhnyushchyy, Getty Images

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