Silicon Valley longevity biotech Fauna Bio has secured new investment from LifeSpan Vision Ventures, a venture capital firm that invests in companies developing therapeutics focusing on longevity and aging reversal. The new funding will be used to advance the company’s lead program in pulmonary fibrosis.
Fauna Bio studies protective genotypes across extreme biology in the animal kingdom to develop new therapies to improve human health and lifespan. Extreme adaptation is common across many mammals, giving a vast pool of potential targets. By identifying and understanding the protective physiological mechanisms that enable this adaptation, Fauna Bio says it can rapidly develop novel treatments. The company is currently pursuing initial discovery programs in various stages of development across pulmonary fibrosis, neuronal metabolism, obesity, and cardiac damage.
Fauna Bio’s drug discovery platform is designed to directly link extreme biological traits in mammals to human disease in a way that is scalable and high throughput. The company is running eight discovery programs in various stages of development and is targeting clinical entry for its lead program in pulmonary fibrosis by early 2025.
“Fauna Bio is continuing to progress its pipeline of novel therapeutics and has already generated new chemical entities for its lead program, Fauna1003, for pulmonary fibrosis,” said Ashley Zehnder, CEO of Fauna Bio. “We will use the funds from Lifespan Vision Ventures to advance our lead optimization of this program while continuing to support earlier pipeline programs in retinal disease.”
“Our investment in Fauna Bio furthers our mission of supporting companies that develop therapeutics focusing on longevity and aging reversal,” said Andrew Worden, Founding Partner of LifeSpan Vision Ventures.
“Fauna Bio’s strong team, modality-agnostic platform and early-stage partnerships gives the company excellent prospects to succeed with its vision. We are excited to see this investment become a success as the team develops its pipeline of novel genetic targets and molecules that have the potential to improve treatment paradigms for a range of high unmet need diseases.”
