True North raises $40 million to progress rare disease treatment

US biotech firm True North Therapeutics says it has completed a $40 million Series C equity financing. Proceeds from the financing will be used to advance the clinical development of its lead complement inhibitor, TNT009, for cold agglutinin disease (CAD), as well as other rare diseases targeting the Complement system.

The Series C round is led by New Leaf Venture Partners, a leading institutional healthcare fund, and includes participation by other new investors Perceptive Advisors and Cowen Private Investments, as well as existing investors Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, MPM Capital, OrbiMed, SR One and Baxalta Ventures. In conjunction with the financing, Isaac Manke, partner at New Leaf Venture Partners, will join the True North Therapeutics board of directors.

The Series C financing will provide True North with funding to accelerate clinical development of TNT009 through potential registration-enabling clinical studies for CAD, a rare autoimmune disease involving destruction of red blood cells causing anemia, fatigue and potentially fatal thrombosis. In addition, funding will be used to advance TNT009 and other complement inhibitors from True North’s pipeline to treat additional rare diseases targeting the Complement system. True North initiated a Phase I a clinical study with TNT009 earlier in 2015 and plans to begin a Phase Ib clinical study later this month in patients.