Escalier Raises $19m To Advance Psoriasis Assets
Executive Summary
Escalier Biosciences will use recently raised cash, from an investment round led by Forbion Capital Partners, to progress oral and topical psoriasis therapies into the clinic.
Privately held Escalier Biosciences BV, headquartered in the Netherlands, has raised $19m via a series B financing to take its psoriasis therapy into the clinic this year.
The funding was led by Forbion Capital Partners with existing investors New Science Ventures and BioGeneration Ventures (BGV) completing the round. Forbion told Scrip it was Escalier's management team that caught its attention. "We worked with them in Arkana that was successfully sold to Allergan PLC in 2016," Marco Boorsma, general partner at Forbion, said.
Boorsma added that Escalier's co-founder, CEO and director Raju Mohan and chief scientific officer John Nuss "have shown repeatedly they can develop drug candidates."
He also noted that the company had two shots on goal with oral and topical programs targeting a clinically validated mode of action. Escalier, which was founded in 2016, is developing both topical and oral RORγt drug candidates for psoriasis and expects to be in the clinic with its topical compound in mid-2018.
The nuclear hormone receptor RORγt has emerged as the "master" regulator of Th17 cell differentiation and the production of pro-inflammatory cytokines, such as IL-17A and IL-17F, Escalier said. There are a couple of other companies developing RORγt (retinoic acid receptor-related orphan receptor gamma) agonists for psoriasis, such as Nuevolution AS (preclinical) and Allergan (Phase II).
Psoriasis is a chronic, autoimmune disease that results in raised, red, scaly patches on the skin. It is estimated that 7.5 million Americans and 125 million people worldwide have psoriasis. Patients are categorized into mild, moderate or severe with the National Psoriasis Foundation, but the majority of psoriasis patients are in the mild to moderate category.
Escalier's topical program represents an efficacious and safe drug with a new mode of action that could be used as alternative to long-term use of steroids, Boorsma said. This product candidate will be aimed at patients that do not respond well to current topical therapies.
However, the oral program is targeted at moderate to severe psoriasis patients, before treatment with expensive injected antibodies. This drug is expected to enter clinically studies towards the end of 2018.
Escalier's investor syndicate will support the company through advanced clinical studies, but potential partnering with interested pharma parties is always on the table, Boorsma said.
Forbion's Investment Targets
Boorsma told Scrip that Europe continued to be a good market for life science investment. He said Europe had "lots of interesting investment opportunities and increasing amounts of VC money, also from US investors."
However, valuations were still modest when compared to the large US deals, he said. But there was a healthy M&A climate.
Forbion's sweet spot is biotech and pharma companies with advanced preclinical (initial efficacy and safety data) to early clinical-stage assets. However, Forbion also invests and sets up companies based on ideas, such as Staten Biotech, and also in companies that are in advanced clinical development, such as Milestone Pharmaceuticals Inc.