CRD-4730

“People see cardio as not just the province of Big Pharma anymore,” Cardurion CEO Peter Lawrence told Fierce Biotech in an interview. Cardurion Pharmaceuticals was made flush in 2021 thanks to a $300 million investment from Bain Capital. Now, the biotech is looking to challenge the statin-dominated cardiovascular status quo with a $260 million series B fundraising round. Bain also participated in this latest raise, which was led by Ascenta Capital. Other new investors include NEA, GV, Fidelity Management & Research Company, Millennium Management, Farallon Capital Management, Invus, Blue Owl Healthcare Opportunities, Delos Capital and Digitalis Ventures. Cardurion was founded by Michael Mendelsohn, M.D., a physician-scientist and previous global head of cardiovascular research at Merck, to develop new therapies for heart failure and other cardiovascular diseases. After forming a collaboration with Takeda in 2017, the biotech emerged with lab space, development resources and licenses to a bunch of Takeda assets. CEO Peter Lawrence, who joined in 2020, credits Cardurion’s success over subsequent years despite a tough market to general excitement about cardiovascular diseases and specific enthusiasm for Cardurion’s first-in-class drugs. “People see cardio as not just the province of Big Pharma anymore,” Lawrence told Fierce Biotech in an interview. “We have two clinical stage assets, three ongoing proof of concept trials, any one of which, if successful, could be somewhat transformational for a patient population.” Cardurion plans to harness the fresh funds to support later-stage clinical trials of its two leading drug candidates, a phosphodiesterase-9 (PDE9) inhibitor called CRD-750 and a calcium–calmodulin-dependent protein kinase II (CaMKII) inhibitor called CRD-4730, both of which are currently in phase 2 clinical trials. CRD-750 is being tested for both types of heart failure: heart failure with preserved ejection fraction, and heart failure with reduced ejection fraction. More than six million adults in the U.S. have heart failure, and heart disease is the leading cause of death in the nation. When the heart is stressed, it depends on a messenger molecule called cyclic guanosine monophosphate (cGMP) to regulate its response. PDE9 plays a role by breaking down cGMP so it isn’t overabundant, but in heart failure, this can lead to a lack of the needed cGMP for the heart to respond to stress. CRD-750 binds to PDE9 and prevents it from breaking down cGMP, which Cardurion thinks will allow the signaling molecule to build up and alleviate heart failure symptoms. “At each step of the way, preclinically and then clinically, the hypothesis has held,” Lawrence said. He believes CRD-750 has the potential to become the standard of care for heart failure. CRD-4730 is being tested for a rare genetic disease called catecholaminergic polymorphic ventricular tachycardia, which causes heart arrhythmia. Cardurion also plans to expand its CaMKII inhibitors into other, more common cardiovascular diseases. “Big Pharma has been trying to get CaMKII inhibitors in the clinic for almost two decades,” Lawrence said. “This is actually the first-ever CaMKII inhibitor that's been taken into human clinical testing.” In addition to furthering its own drugs, Cardurion plans to use series B funds to pursue and purchase other assets. The biotech is currently eyeing one or two preclinical targets that have shown great potential, Lawrence said, and he thinks Cardurion’s robust M&A strategy helped make the company enticing to investors. “It's a high bar because we have great internal assets,” the CEO said. “But if we see something that we love, targets that we think are going to be important, we're going to try and figure out a way to bring them in and get going on them.” Lawrence has been on the other side of the dealmaking table, too; he oversaw the $2.7 billion sale of oncology biotech ArQule to Merck & Co. in 2020. While Cardurion is interested in partnering with Big Pharma, he said, his focus is on pumping up the biotech’s independence. “Having been in and around M&A for 30 years, I think you can never build to [acquisition],” Lawrence said. “We're building the company to have a long gestation.”

BURLINGTON, Mass.--( BUSINESS WIRE )-- Cardurion Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (“Cardurion”), a clinical-stage biotechnology company developing next-generation therapeutics for the treatment of cardiovascular diseases, today announced it has raised a $260 million Series B financing led by Ascenta Capital, with participation by new investors NEA, GV, Fidelity Management & Research Company, Millennium Management, Farallon Capital Management, Invus, Blue Owl Healthcare Opportunities, Delos Capital and Digitalis Ventures, as well as existing investors Bain Capital Life Sciences and Bain Capital Private Equity. Proceeds from the financing will be used to support later-stage clinical trials with the company’s two lead drug candidates, a first-in-class phosphodiesterase-9 (PDE9) inhibitor for heart failure and the first clinical-stage Calcium/Calmodulin-dependent Protein Kinase II (CaMKII) inhibitor with broad therapeutic potential. In addition, the funding will be used to expand the cardiovascular indications for Cardurion’s portfolio of drug candidates, to progress internal discovery programs and to acquire additional therapeutic assets targeting unmet needs in the cardiovascular disease area. “We are excited to welcome Ascenta Capital and this high-quality group of new investors who share our vision to be a world-class cardiovascular innovator, pursuing treatments for a broad range of debilitating diseases,” said Peter Lawrence, Chief Executive Officer of Cardurion. “Cardiovascular disease remains the leading cause of death in the world, and we are pursuing new therapeutic targets to address unmet needs for patients with these diseases. Our experienced team at Cardurion has shown the ability to translate emerging science in cardiovascular signaling pathways into groundbreaking therapeutics with our PDE9 and CaMKII inhibitor programs, and we have now moved both programs into later-stage clinical studies where we can further evaluate efficacy in patients.” Based on recent clinical validation of Cardurion’s PDE9 program, the company is now evaluating its lead PDE9 inhibitor, CRD‑750, in two Phase 2 clinical trials in 640 patients with both types of heart failure, HFrEF and HFpEF. The company also has an ongoing Phase 2 clinical trial for its lead CaMKII inhibitor, CRD-4730, for the treatment of catecholaminergic polymorphic ventricular tachycardia (CPVT), a rare genetic arrhythmic disease. Cardurion also plans to pursue development of CaMKII inhibitors in additional major cardiovascular indications. This new investment will enable the company to scale its team and continue to build industry-leading capabilities in cardiovascular drug innovation. In conjunction with this financing, Evan Rachlin, MD, Co-Founder and Managing Partner from Ascenta Capital, Dan Lynch, Executive Venture Partner from GV, and Ed Mathers, Partner from NEA, will join the Cardurion Board of Directors. “We at Ascenta are very impressed with the significant clinical data the Cardurion team has generated for their innovative cardiovascular drug candidates, with strong initial validation for targeting these untapped signaling pathways to address important needs in cardiovascular treatment,” said Dr. Rachlin. “We are excited by innovation in cardiovascular medicine, and we look forward to partnering with Cardurion to help drive its mission to bring these new therapies to patients.” About Cardurion Pharmaceuticals Cardurion Pharmaceuticals is a clinical-stage biotechnology company focused on the discovery and development of novel, next-generation therapeutics for the treatment of cardiovascular diseases. Cardurion was founded by physician-scientists with world-class expertise in cardiovascular signaling pathways, and a shared passion to find and develop a pipeline of novel treatment options to improve the lives of patients. Cardurion has two groundbreaking clinical programs in development, a first-in-class phosphodiesterase-9 (PDE9) inhibitor for both types of heart failure and the first-ever clinical-stage Calcium/Calmodulin-dependent Protein Kinase II (CaMKII) inhibitor for rare and common cardiovascular diseases. Cardurion Pharmaceuticals is headquartered in Burlington, Massachusetts, with discovery sciences and research facilities in Shonan, Japan. For more information, please visit the company’s website at https://cardurion.com .