Gene therapy developer Renovacor, a Temple University spinout, has secured series A funding from investors including Novartis Venture Fund.

Renovacor, a US-based gene therapy spinout of Temple University focused on cardiovascular disease, closed an $11m series A round yesterday co-led by Novartis Venture Fund, the corporate venturing vehicle for drug maker Novartis. Broadview Ventures, a cardiovascular-focused impact investment unit formed by family office Leducq Family Trust, and BioAdvance co-led the round, with contributions from New Leaf Venture Partners and Innogest Capital. Renovacor is commercialising a drug for dilated cardiomyopathy (DCM), a serious blood circulation impairment that arises when the heart’s main pumping chamber – the left ventricle – has become frail and inflated. The drug will treat DCM subtypes where the patient possesses a faulty BAG3 gene, depositing its therapeutic genetic payload into the body via a recombinant adeno-associated virus vector. BAG3-driven DCM affects approximately 35,000 people in the US and is classified as an orphan disease. It carries a higher risk of heart failure occurring sooner, and patients with the tend to be younger relative to the wider DCM disease population. Proceeds from the series A round will go to progressing Renovacor’s lead program, with a view to submitting an investigational new drug application and commencing human clinical trials. Renovacor’s understanding of BAG3 mutations comes from a decade of research championed by Arthur Feldman, the Laura H. Carnell professor of medicine for cardiology at Temple University’s Lewis Katz School of Medicine. Feldman will join Renovacor’s board together with other directors including Campbell Murray, managing director at Novartis Venture Fund, and Thomas Needham, director and head of biopharmaceuticals at Broadview Ventures.

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