Finance Watch: Neuron23 Adds $100m To Take First Drug Into The Clinic

With Series C, Start-Up Has Raised $213.5m To Date

Private Company Edition: Westlake Village BioPartners-founded Neuron23 will take the LRRK2 inhibitor NEU-723 for Parkinson’s disease into human testing before the end of 2022. Also, Celsius raised $83m in fresh VC cash and ITM added another €33m to its recent €25m equity financing.

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Neuron23 Inc. aims to take two small molecule drug candidates for neurological diseases into the clinic during the next two years, with $100m from a series C venture capital round that the company announced on 30 March. The first clinical trial for lead drug candidate NEU-723, a brain-penetrant leucine-rich repeat kinase 2 (LRRK2) inhibitor for the treatment of select Parkinson’s disease patients, will begin before the end of 2022.

South San Francisco-based Neuron23 is pairing human genetic data with artificial intelligence-enabled drug discovery and biomarker platforms to develop precision medicines for genetically-defined neurological and immunological diseases. NEU-723 will be tested in patients with LRRK2 gene mutations and in others who have LRRK2-driven Parkinson’s disease as determined by a company-developed companion diagnostic

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