Irish firm raises $20m for heart disease drug trials

An Irish biotechnology company developing drugs to tackle a heart disease that causes sudden death in young athletes has raised $20m (€14.5m) Series A financing for clinical drug trials.

Heart Metabolics Limited has developed a drug, perhexiline, which has already completed phase two clinical trials as a treatment for hypertrophic cardiomyopathy.

Heart Metabolics CEO Peter Milner said he was confident that they have an effective therapy for the fatal heart disease.

“We are excited to raise the funds necessary from high caliber investors to accelerate the development of perhexiline in a pivotal phase three clinical trial,” said Mr Milner.

“Based on previous clinical data, we believe this drug will be an effective therapy for the rare but deadly heart disease, hypertrophic cardiomyopathy.”

The funding for the key phase three trials come from a number of investors including venBio, Seroba Kernel Life Sciences, Brandon Capital Partners (on behalf of AustralianSuper), and AshHill.

The companies have invested on the strength of the phase two clinical trials and Heart’s intellectual property position. The drug has already received orphan drug designation in the US from the FDA and the company is seeking orphan drug designation in the EU. In addition, the company has a second drug candidate in preclinical development for an undisclosed indication of high unmet medical need.

Corey Goodman, managing partner of venBio, said that they were looking forward to bringing this drug to the assistence of sufferers.

“We look forward to working with a terrific management team, clinical experts and group of investors to move this promising drug forward into a phase three clinical trial for patients suffering from this serious orphan disease,” he said.