Remedium Bio announces successful $2.3m expanded seed raise

Remedium Bio closes successful $2.3m expanded seed raise

Author: Eleanor Garth | Published on: August 18, 2022 | Last updated: August 18, 2022

Novel gene therapy biotech raises additional funding for osteoarthritis gene therapy candidate.

Remedium Bio has announced that it has closed more than $2.3m in its expanded seed round financing. Funding from the raise is being used to study Remedium’s lead product, a single-injection gene therapy potentially capable of reversing cartilage loss; this research is being conducted in collaboration with scientists from Tufts University School of Medicine who are engaged in researching rheumatic disorders.

The financing was led by Sherwood Ventures and included participation from, LongevityTech.Fund, Primo Medical Group, Angel Star Ventures, Apis Health Angels, MicroVentures, and Guindy Alumni Angels.

Longevity.Technology: Remedium’s pipeline includes therapeutic indications in osteoarthritis, diabetes, stroke and other large unmet clinical needs.

Osteoarthritis is the largest unmet need in rheumatology, a market worth $37b; with no currently approved therapies capable of slowing or reversing disease progression, Remedium’s novel solution offers the potential to arrest progression of this debilitating disease progression. Working after a single injection, the therapy promotes restoration of a more natural, youthful phenotype of articular cartilage.

Remedium’s lead candidate is the only single injection gene therapy based on the clinically-proven anabolic mechanism of FGF18, which has demonstrated the ability to reverse cartilage loss in a placebo controlled, multi-centre, randomised clinical trial.

“Our technology has the potential to reverse years of age-related cartilage loss, for a disease that currently has no approved therapeutic treatments capable of slowing or reversing progression,” said Frank Luppino, President and CEO of Remedium Bio. “We are extremely excited about the progress made to date, and believe that our gene-augmentation technology can be translated to a number of other age-related pathologies with no currently available disease-modifying options [1].”

Remedium was founded by orthopaedics industry veterans with proven track records of developing leading therapeutics at companies ranging from start-ups to Fortune 500, and has attracted a number of academic collaborators and medical KOLs to its advisory board including Dr Timothy McAlindon, MD, MPH, Chief of the Division of Rheumatology at Tufts Medical Center and Dr Jeff Ellsworth, PhD, the pioneer of rhFGF18 technology and CSO of Recardia Therapeutics.

ASBMR presentation

The company also announced the acceptance of an abstract entitled Characterization of a Novel FGF18 Gene Therapy for the Treatment of Osteoarthritis for the 2022 Annual American Society of Bone and Mineral Research (ASBMR) meeting.

This year’s event will take place in Austin, Texas, from 9–12 September, and the work presented will highlight Remedium’s progress in its development of its novel gene therapy for the treatment of osteoarthritis.

“We are honored to have been accepted to present our abstract reviewing the progress made to date in the development of our FGF18 gene therapy treatment for Osteoarthritis at the 2022 ASBMR,” Luppino said [1].

RESI Boston Innovator’s Pitch Challenge event

Remedium added to its flurry of news by announcing it has been selected amongst the finalists to present at the Life Science Nation’s RESI Boston Innovator’s Pitch Challenge event. The Redefining Early Stage Investments (RESI) Boston conference will take place 21–22 September at the Westin Copley Place in person, following more than two years in digital format.

This 2-day event will include participation from over 450 investors and strategic partners, featuring panel discussions, workshops and culminating in the Pitch Challenge sessions. Remedium will showcase its lead candidate, the only single injection gene therapy potentially capable of reversing cartilage loss in osteoarthritis, based on a clinically proven mechanism.