NVasc was founded by a team of highly regarded scientists: Napoleone Ferrara, MD, the late Nobel Laureate Robert Grubbs, PhD, Dan Schwartz, MD, and Marco Zarbin, MD, PhD. Dr. Ferrara was involved in the discovery of VEGF, recognized as the key regulator of angiogenesis, and in the creation of LUCENTIS® and AVASTIN®. Among other achievements, Dr. Ferrara received a Lasker award for developing the first effective therapy for neovascular AMD.
"I truly appreciate the support of the RD Fund," says Dr. Ferrara. "I am excited by the possibility of developing a novel therapy for AMD that prevents loss of choriocapillaris and slows down progression of geographic atrophy."
The financing supports continued product and nonclinical development of NVasc's technology for therapeutic angiogenesis as a treatment for retinal ischemia associated with age-related macular degeneration and geographic atrophy. Adrienne Graves, PhD, RD Fund Chair, joined the NVasc board as an independent board director.
"We're fortunate to be in a position to help catalyze the discovery and development of novel therapeutic strategies for age-related macular degenerations," says Rusty Kelley, PhD, managing director at the RD Fund. "NVasc adds to the RD Fund portfolio another group of world-class scientific founders with significant expertise from discovery to the clinic, and with a unique mechanism aimed at improving choroidal and retinal revascularization that gets us closer to the cause of disease. Dr. Graves, chair of Iveric Bio prior to its acquisition by Astellas, brings a wealth of Board governance experience to NVasc."
NVasc, Inc. is an early-stage ophthalmology company founded in February 2019 and funded by Kairos Ventures in November 2019. The company is focused on treating the leading causes of blindness through choroidal and retinal revascularization. NVasc has acquired the research rights to growth factors (NVB001 and NVB002) that have been shown to encourage the growth of non-leaking new vessels in the retina and choroid in mouse models of ischemic eye diseases. The company is planning to manufacture NVB001 that can be used in toxicokinetic studies and in early clinical trials in humans.
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