Engrail Therapeutics’ latest financing round will give it enough funds to advance its candidates for neuropsychiatric and neurodevelopmental disorders through clinical development.
Pictured: Anxious man with his head in his hands/iStock, gorodenkoff
San Diego-based Engrail Therapeutics has closed a $157 million oversubscribed Series B funding round to support the development of its therapeutic assets for the treatment of anxiety disorders, depression, post-traumatic stress disorder and rare neurodegenerative diseases.
New investors, including Forbion, F-Prime Capital, and Norwest Venture Partners, led the funding. Other participants included RiverVest Venture Partners, Red Tree Venture Capital, Ysios Capital, Longwood Fund, Eight Roads Ventures and Pivotal Life Science.
Proceeds from the financing round will be used to support the advancement of Engrail’s pipeline through clinical development.
“With strong financial backing from highly sophisticated and dedicated life science investors, we are well-positioned to deliver multiple value-creating milestones. Notably, we look forward to completing our ongoing ENX-102 Phase II study in generalized anxiety disorder and advancing the rest of our pipeline into clinical development,” Engrail CEO Vikram Sudarsan said in a statement. “Engrail was fortunate to have been incubated under a tremendous commitment from Pivotal Life Sciences. We are excited to start the next chapter of our journey with some of the best thought partners in neuroscience and life sciences investing in our success.”
Engrail emerged in 2020 with a $32 million Series A financing round singularly funded by Nan Fung Life Sciences, which was designed to advance its first pipeline asset. Known as ENX-101, the drug was a sub-type selective GABA A modulator but the drug has since been removed from the company’s website. The Series A was extended to $64 million in 2021. Since 2019, the biotech has raised over $220 million.
“We see tremendous potential in Engrail’s pipeline and management team and are excited to participate in their development of transformative therapies for patients,” Stacie Weninger, board member and president of F-Prime Biomedical Research Initiative, said in a statement.
Engrail is among several biotechs that have recently secured funding. ProfoundBio, a Seattle-based antibody-drug conjugate company, raised $112 million in its Series B round in February 2024 to move four candidates forward.
In January 2024, Beijing Avistone Biotechnology, which is focused on precision oncology treatments, also completed a 1 billion yuan ($140 million) Series B round.
Tyler Patchen is a staff writer at BioSpace. You can reach him at tyler.patchen@biospace.com. Follow him on LinkedIn.
