Lumena Pharmaceuticals is a biopharmaceutical company developing and commercializing novel products for rare cholestatic liver diseases and serious metabolic disorders. Its lead candidate, LUM001, is being developed to treat rare cholestatic liver disease in pediatric and adult patients; it is also developing LUM002 for nonalcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH). The company is led by president and CEO Mike Grey and was founded in 2011. Lumena secured $45M in a Series B financing to finance its programs. The funds are intended to advance the clinical development of its product candidates. As part of the financing, Ed Mathers of New Enterprise Associates will join Lumena’s board of directors. Lumena Pharmaceuticals is a San Diego–based developer focused on oral therapeutics for rare liver diseases. The company is advancing LUM001, its lead candidate for cholestatic liver disease in pediatric and adult patients, and will use the new financing to support its clinical development. LUM001 was licensed from Pfizer, was originally evaluated as a cholesterol‑lowering drug, and has been studied in 12 clinical trials in more than 1,400 subjects. Lumena also licensed patent rights and a package of clinical and non‑clinical data from Sanofi for LUM002, a selective ASBT inhibitor, and plans to complete LUM002's Phase I program in healthy volunteers later this year. The company secured $23M in Series A financing to advance late‑phase development and initial Phase I completion for its pipeline. Leadership includes CEO and co‑founder Mike Grey and CMO Alejandro Dorenbaum; new board members tied to the financing joined from Pappas Ventures, RiverVest and Alta Partners. Lumena Pharmaceuticals is developing an oral type 2 diabetes treatment intended to replicate a “bile acid brake” effect in the gastrointestinal tract to trigger GLP‑1 release and help patients regulate blood sugar. The company’s approach targets the gut rather than circulating drugs in the bloodstream, which it says could offer fewer side effects compared with other diabetes treatments. Lumena aims to reproduce metabolic changes observed after gastric bypass surgery, where altered bile acid circulation can rapidly normalize blood glucose. The technology was developed by cofounder Slava Gedulin after he left Amylin Pharmaceuticals; Amylin has no claims on Lumena’s technology. The Research Triangle Park company was founded last year. Lumena raised $2.5 million in an oversubscribed first round and will use the proceeds to begin human clinical trials.

Total raised

$71M

Funding rounds

3

Latest round

Series B

Latest activity

Mar 2014