Lyon, April 2021
GAOMA Therapeutics announces its first capital increase and a strategic partnership with the PPRS Group, for the development of its first-in-class drug-candidate GAO-3-02.
This oversubscribed fund raising reaches a total equity investment over €1.1m. The life sciences Business Angels organizations Simba Santé 3, Angels Santé and Health Angels Rhône-Alpes participated in the round, alongside with PPRS Ventures and private qualified individuals.
Jordan Guyon, GAOMA’s Co-founder and CEO, comments: “GAOMA is proud to have achieved this first financing round, which obviously represents a critical step in the development of the project. Such funding will enable GAOMA to properly structure the company, to enrich its governance and to pursue the preclinical development of its lead program GAO-3-02 in epilepsy”.
Epilepsy is one of the most prevalent severe neurological disease, affecting up to 70 million people worldwide. The pathology is mainly known for the seizures it causes, but patients with epilepsy also frequently suffer from other symptoms such as cognitive, behavioral or psychological disorders. Unfortunately, the commercially available drugs still leave a strong unmet medical need: over 30% of patients considered resistant, a poor tolerance of treatments, and a partial coverage of symptoms.
GAO-3-02, a new chemical entity, is a lipid derivative designed with a biomimetic approach.Contrary to standard anti-epileptic drugs that try to directly regulate neuronal excitability, GAO-3-02 acts on neuroinflammation and brain plasticity.By targeting these mechanisms underlying the disease, the drug-candidate aims to address a broader spectrum of symptoms than seizures, in a sustained fashion, and with a good tolerance. As a whole, GAO-3-02 has the objective to substantially improve the patients’ quality of life.
PPRS’ contribution in this round is part of the group's strategy to participate as a minority shareholder in early-stage financing of companies coming from cutting-edge academic research projects.
Nadine Noël, drug development director at PPRS, explains: “In addition to our financial investment in this promising company, with an innovative technology and a high-level management team, PPRS will have the opportunity to contribute to the success of GAOMA by bringing its expertise and know-how to the development plan and compound development. There are still substantial unmet medical needs for people with epilepsy and we look forward to seeing GAO-3-02 progress to the clinic thanks to the complementary expertise of our two companies.”
Stéphane Legastelois, President of Simba Santé 3, adds: “Simba Santé 3, an investment company of the Angelor group, backed by a network of more than twenty partners who are all experts in the Healthcare area, is very proud to contribute to the development of GAOMA. The quality of the team and the first scientific data are major assets that make us very confident in the strong potential of the company.”
About GAOMA Therapeutics (www.gaoma-tx.com)
GAOMA Therapeutics is a French biotech company specialized in the development of pioneering treatments based on lipids derivatives. The first therapeutic areas of interest for the company are notably epilepsy and cognitive disorders. GAOMA was founded in 2019 with the support of the Tech Transfer Office PULSALYS, based on the work from the Translational and Integrative Group in Epilepsy Research (TIGER),which is part of the Lyon Neuroscience Research Center (CRNL).
About PPRS Group (www.pprs-research.com)
Based in France (Colmar), Austria (Vienna) and the United States (Boston), the PPRS Group specializes in the development of innovative projects in the field of neuroscience. With a multidisciplinary team of 50 staff members, and a worldwide network in the pharmaceutical and medtech industries, PPRS supports a dozen drug-candidates or medical devices from early stages to registration and marketing.
GAOMA contact
Jordan Guyon, CEO
jordan.guyon@gaoma-tx.com
00 33 6 37 80 50 89
PPRS contact
Baptiste Planat, Director Corporate Development
bpl@pprs-research.com
00 33 6 07 38 41 23