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https://www.biopharmadive.com/news/cardurion-series-b-pde9-inhibitors-heart-drug-venture/721462/

Cardurion raises another $260M to fuel heart drug pipeline

The startup will use the financing to advance a pair of cardiovascular medicines and potentially add new therapies to its portfolio.

Published July 16, 2024

Dive Brief:

• Biotechnology startup Cardurion Pharmaceuticals on Tuesday raised a $260 million Series B round that will help it build its portfolio of heart disease drugs.

• Cardurion will use the funds to advance a pair of medicines into mid- and late-stage testing, run studies in newer indications and potentially acquire other assets for cardiovascular diseases. The round comes two months after the startup detailed data from a Phase 2 trial in heart failure.

• Ascenta Capital led the financing, which involved NEA, GV, Bain Capital Life Sciences and a handful of other investors. Bain has already invested heavily in Cardurion, having poured up to $300 million into the startup in 2021.

Dive Insight:

After years of being overlooked by investors, heart and metabolic disease startups are now getting closer attention, fueled in part by the spectacular success of obesity drugs as well as deals for companies working on cardiovascular research.

Bristol Myers Squibb paid $13 billion in 2020 to buy MyoKardia and a drug the biotech had developed for a genetic heart condition, for example. Novartis spent $10 billion on a cholesterol drug from The Medicines Co. a year earlier. More recently, drugs like Wegovy and Zepbound have proven able to not only help people lose weight, but protect heart health as well, driving more interest in companies working in the field.

Against that backdrop, Cardurion has been using its sizable bankroll to build a growing portfolio. The company was launched in 2017 with an alliance with Takeda, and has since advanced a group of medicines for heart failure and heart muscle dysfunctions. It’s turned to deals to grow its pipeline too, in 2022 acquiring a medicine from now-defunct biotech Imara.

In heart failure, Cardurion aims to improve upon standard care. Currently, about half of patients with the condition die within five years of their diagnosis. Though Novartis’ blockbuster medicine Entresto can reduce the risk of death or complications, there remains room for improvement.

Cardurion’s drugs CRD-740 and CRD-750 block an enzyme called PDE9, a biological target that’s been studied in other conditions like Alzheimer’s and sickle cell disease. In heart failure, PDE9 could prove beneficial because of its role regulating a molecule involved in the relaxation of heart muscles. Doing so could improve the heart’s ability to pump blood, which is compromised in people with heart failure.

Phase 2 data presented in May showed CRD-740 increased levels of that molecule, known as cGMP, after four weeks of treatment, meeting the study’s primary goal.

In a statement, the company said it is testing CRD-750 in two Phase 2 studies of people with heart failure. It will also use the funding to advance a second experimental drug targeting a protein linked to hyperactive muscle tissue. That drug will initially be tested in people with a rare condition called catecholaminergic polymorphic ventricular tachycardia.