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news.Clinical-stage biotechnology company QurAlis has closed $88m in oversubscribed Series B financing round to advance precision medicines for neurodegenerative diseases.
QRL-201 is the firm’s first-in-class therapeutic product candidate. Credit: Darko Stojanovic from Pixabay.
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The financing round, which brings the total funds raised by the firm to $143.5m, was led by EQT Life Sciences, investing from Droia Ventures, Sanofi Ventures and the LSP Dementia Fund.
It also involved participation from the ALS Investment Fund and existing investors LS Polaris Innovation Fund, INKEF Capital, Dementia Discovery Fund, Mission BioCapital, Amgen Ventures, MP Healthcare Venture Management, Mitsui Global Investment, Dolby Family Ventures, Mission Bay Capital, and Sanford Biosciences.
QurAlis plans to use the financing proceeds to fund clinical development of its lead product candidates, QRL-201 and QRL-101 in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), as well as to support ongoing and planned research.
The proceeds will also be used to advance the company’s pipeline with therapeutic candidates.
These candidates target specific ALS components and genetically related frontotemporal dementia (FTD) pathology and defined ALS patient populations based on disease-causing genetic mutation(s) as well as clinical biomarkers.
QurAlis board of directors chair Anne Whitaker said: “This financing reflects significant investor confidence in the science behind QurAlis’ next-generation precision medicines, world-class team, and commitment to bringing new therapies to patients suffering from ALS and other neurodegenerative diseases.”
QRL-201 is a first-in-class therapeutic product candidate. It aims to restore the ALS patients’ STMN2 expression.
It helps address STMN2 function loss in QurAlis ALS patient-derived motor neuron disease models using TDP-43 pathology.
QurAlis recently initiated first-ever clinical trial of QRL-201 to rescue STMN2 in ALS people.
QurAlis CEO and co-founder Kasper Roet said: “This financing round recognises our scientific track record and will help us advance the clinical development of our two lead programmes in ALS and robust pipeline through near-term value-creating milestones.”
