Corteria Pharmaceuticals (“Corteria”), a biopharmaceutical company specialized in the development of transformative therapies for unaddressed heart failure subpopulations, today announced an oversubscribed €65M ($71M) Series A co-led by US investment firm OrbiMed and EU-based leading investment firm Jeito Capital, with the participation of all existing seed investors (Kurma Partners, Fountain Healthcare Partners, V-Bio Ventures, Invivo Capital, Omnes Capital). As a result, Erez Chimovits from OrbiMed and Andreas Wallnoefer from Jeito Capital will join the board of Directors of Corteria.
The funding will be used to advance Corteria’s cardiovascular pipeline into the clinic.
Heart failure is a serious disease with a prevalence of more than 60 million patients globally and still growing. Corteria’s innovative approach is centered on selecting therapeutic targets involved in the worsening and acute forms of human heart failure, as well as a stratification strategy to identify specific subgroups that are most likely to benefit from the treatments. These forms of heart failure are widespread, life-threatening, and not directly addressed by the current standards of care.
Corteria was founded in 2021 by Sanofi’s former head of cardiovascular research, Philip Janiak, and Marie-Laure Ozoux, former cardiovascular project leader at Sanofi, around two cardiovascular programs in-licensed from Sanofi.
Since then, Corteria’s pipeline has expanded rapidly and comprises today three first-in-class therapies that are highly differentiated as they produce multi-organ benefits, acting on the kidneys, the heart, and the vessels:
A once daily subcutaneous Corticotropin-releasing hormone receptor 2 (“CRF2”) agonist for the treatment of Worsening Heart Failure
A once monthly subcutaneous CRF2 agonist for the treatment of Right Heart Failure
An AVP (arginine vasopressin) neutralizing monoclonal antibody for the treatment of Acute Heart Failure with Hyponatremia
The lead asset for Worsening Heart Failure is expected to enter the clinic in early 2024.
“This financing marks a major milestone in our mission to bring therapies to heart failure subpopulations with high unmet needs,” said Philip Janiak, Founder and President of Corteria Pharmaceuticals. “We are extremely grateful to Jeito and OrbiMed as our new investors for their trust in our science and team and to our existing investors for their support and commitment since inception. We are looking forward to working all together to develop next generation transformative therapeutics.”
Andreas Wallnoefer, Partner at Jeito Capital, said: “Despite current treatments, heart failure is a progressing disease that impacts severely the lives of many patients and remains one of the leading causes of mortality worldwide. Corteria focuses on translating important therapeutic innovation in cardiology into clinical practice. Our investment in Corteria reflects Jeito’s commitment to address significant unmet needs in the realm of cardiology. We are excited to join forces with Corteria’s dedicated team to develop a portfolio of medicines with important clinical benefit for patients.”
“We are proud to have been involved with Corteria since its early days and impressed with the progress made to date. The company is now at a turning point of entering the clinic with its lead asset early next year and validating its unique positioning in well-defined heart failure subpopulations with high unmet medical needs. Kurma Partners is pleased to continue supporting the company during this key step that we hope will bring transformative clinical outcome for patients,” said Thierry Laugel, Managing Partner at Kurma Partners, and Chairman of the board of Corteria.
About OrbiMed
OrbiMed is a healthcare investment firm, with over $17 billion in assets under management. OrbiMed invests globally across the healthcare industry through a range of private equity funds, public equity funds, and royalty/credit funds. OrbiMed’s team of over 100 professionals is based in New York City, San Francisco, Shanghai, Hong Kong, Mumbai, Herzliya, and other key global markets. www.orbimed.com
About Jeito Capital
Jeito Capital is a global leading Private Equity company with a patient benefit driven approach that finances and accelerates the development and growth of ground-breaking medical innovation. Jeito empowers and supports managers through its expert, integrated, multi-talented team and through the investment of significant capital to ensure the growth of companies, building market leaders in their respective therapeutic areas with accelerated patients’ access globally, especially in Europe and the United States. Jeito Capital has €534 million under management and a rapidly growing portfolio of investments. Jeito Capital is based in Paris with a presence in Europe and the United States. For more information, please visit www.jeito.life or follow @Jeito_life on Twitter or LinkedIn.
About Corteria Pharmaceuticals
Founded in 2021, Corteria Pharmaceuticals is a privately held biopharmaceutical company developing first-in-class drugs in heart failure subpopulations. Despite some improvements in the management of this serious disease, the prevalence of heart failure keeps increasing with more than 60 million patients worldwide. Corteria’s strategy involves innovative patient stratification and target selection based on human evidence and a better understanding of disease biology in patients with a focus on worsening and acute heart failure and right heart failure. More information available at: www.corteriapharma.com
Investors/media contacts
Stéphane Durant des Aulnois, CFO
Corteria Pharmaceuticals
stephane.durant_des_aulnois@corteriapharma.com
Andrew Lloyd & Associates
Saffiyah Khalique / Celine Gonzalez
saffiyah@ala.associates / celine@ala.associates
UK: +44 1273 952 481
US: +1 203 724 595