TÜBINGEN, GERMANY — Acousia Therapeutics, a privately held biotech firm developing novel therapies for inner ear disease and pathologies, announced this week the closing of a €10 million (approximately $11.8M USD) Series B financing round to “advance its pipeline of preclinical drug candidates into clinical stage”.
According to the announcement, the financing round was led by new investor LBBW Venture Capital, and was joined by other new investors, Creathor Ventures and Bregua Corporation. Current investors, Boehringer Ingelheim Venture Fund and Kreditanstalt für Wiederaufbau were also reported to have in the latest financing round.
Small Molecules for Hearing Loss Treatment
Acousia is said to develop drug candidates based on small molecules for “the protection, repair and restoration of inner sensory cell function”. The company says that its most advanced drug candidate ACOU085, is currently being developed for clinical application in otoprotection to prevent cisplatin-induced hearing loss.
“This investment will enable us to advance the development of our small molecules-based drug candidates. Further preclinical and clinical studies will enhance our drugs’ profile for the improvement of sensory hair cell responsiveness. This might benefit patients suffering from chronic hearing loss due to ototoxic substances or conditions like noise or age. We look very much forward to working with this team of experienced life science investors.” —Dr. Christoph Antz, Acousia CEO
Acousia CSO, Dr. Michael Bös, added: “The medical need for hearing impairment treatment is tremendous, and we expect it to further increase dramatically over the next decades, mainly due to the demographic shift leading to more age-related hearing loss.”
Source: Acousia
