Therachon AG is a clinical-stage biotechnology company focused on developing medicines for rare diseases, with a lead program targeting achondroplasia. Its lead candidate, TA-46, is a novel protein therapeutic being developed as a weekly subcutaneous therapy for children and adolescents with achondroplasia. Therachon is conducting a Phase 1 randomized, placebo-controlled, double-blind trial in healthy volunteers to evaluate the safety, tolerability and pharmacokinetics of single and multiple increasing doses of TA-46. The company has also initiated the 'Dreambird' natural history study to prospectively assess complications of achondroplasia in approximately 200 children across sites in Europe, Canada and the United States to enable treatment studies in children in 2019. Proceeds from its financings are intended to advance TA-46 and expand its rare disease pipeline. The company is based in Basel, Switzerland. Therachon is a biotechnology company focused on developing treatments for rare, genetic diseases. Its lead pipeline candidate, TA-46, is a novel protein therapy in development for achondroplasia, the most common form of short-limbed dwarfism. The company says TA-46 has demonstrated exceptional preclinical efficacy and aims to fully restore normal growth and mitigate complications in affected children. Proceeds from the recent financing will be used to advance Therachon’s emerging portfolio and move its lead program toward the clinic. The Series A financing now stands at $40 million after a $5 million final close. The company recently appointed Luca Santarelli, M.D., as CEO and added Bpifrance’s Chahra Louafi to its board. Therachon is developing a soluble form of human fibroblast growth factor receptor 3 as a protein therapy intended to restore normal bone growth and proportions in children with achondroplasia. The company’s lead program is a soluble decoy FGFR3 that showed increased bone length and reduced complications in mouse models in a 2013 Science Translational Medicine paper from Dr. Elvire Gouze’s lab. Therachon plans to use its new financing to advance the lead program through clinical proof of concept and toward clinical trials. The company was seeded by Versant Ventures and Inserm Transfert Initiative in 2014, and Elvire Gouze serves as founder and scientific advisor. Therachon is based in Nice, France, and targets a patient population of roughly 200,000 worldwide, with achondroplasia affecting about one child in every 15,000 births. Company leadership highlights that there are currently no approved therapies for achondroplasia, underscoring the program’s clinical need.

Total raised

$100M

Funding rounds

3

Latest round

Debt Financing

Latest activity

Aug 2018