SNP-614

SciNeuro Pharmaceuticals has raised $53 million in an equity financing to advance its pipeline of therapies for central nervous system (CNS) disorders and neurodegenerative diseases. The round was led by LAV and ARCH Venture Partners, which along with Lilly Asia Ventures co-led SciNeuro's $100-million series A at its launch in 2020. "This funding represents a significant milestone for SciNeuro," CEO Min Li said in a company release Thursday. "We are excited to channel this investment into the continued development of our pipeline." The biotech is developing therapies across three mechanistic areas — neurovascular inflammation, proteinopathy and immune dysfunction — supported by a proprietary blood-brain-barrier (BBB) shuttle platform. Its most advanced asset, SNP318, is a CNS-penetrant Lp-PLA2 inhibitor designed to restore BBB and retinal-barrier integrity. The drug is in early clinical development, having completed a Phase I study in Alzheimer's disease a little over two years ago and recently began a mid-stage trial in diabetic macular oedema that reads out next year. SciNeuro's preclinical pipeline includes a selective alpha-synuclein antibody (SNP201) for synucleinopathies including Parkinson's disease, dementia with Lewy bodies and multiple system atrophy; a next-generation anti-amyloid antibody (SNP234) targeting aggregated beta-amyloid proteins; an anti-SORT1 antibody (SNP203) aimed at boosting extracellular progranulin levels in conditions like frontotemporal dementia; and an LRRK2 antisense oligonucleotide (SNP614) being advanced under a Michael J. Fox Foundation partnership for Parkinson's research.Alongside the new funding, SciNeuro appointed Hogan Wan as chief financial officer. Wan previously headed investor relations and strategy at Ascentage Pharma, where he led the company's NASDAQ IPO earlier this year.