RI-Based MindImmune Therapeutics Raises $12.4M in Series A Financing

RI-Based MindImmune Therapeutics Raises $12.4M in Series A Financing

MindImmune Therapeutics Inc., a Rhode Island-based drug discovery company says that it is “pioneering a new approach to treat Alzheimer’s disease and other neuro-degenerative conditions.” It has announced it has closed on a $12.4-million Series A financing.

Investors participating in the round include Dolby Family Ventures, Pfizer Ventures, the Alzheimer’s Drug Discovery Foundation (ADDF), Trend Venture, RightHill Ventures (an affiliate of the Slater Technology Fund) and several private investors. Use of proceeds of the financing will support MindImmune in advancing its lead program in preclinical development, targeting Alzheimer’s disease as the primary indication.

In the United States, an estimated 5.8 million Americans have been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease. Statisticians predict that in the next 30 years, 13.8 million people may be living with Alzheimer’s if researchers aren’t able to prevent or find a cure for the disease.

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MindImmune was founded by co-founders Stevin Zorn, Ph.D, Frank Menniti, Ph.D. and Robert Nelson, Ph.D., who originally met as scientific collaborators in central nervous system (CNS) research at Pfizer. After Pfizer, Drs. Zorn and Nelson joined H. Lundbeck AS, a leading CNS- focused pharmaceutical company, where they established one of the first pharma research groups targeting neuroinflammation. Following his tenure at Pfizer, Dr. Menniti was a co-founder of Mnemosyne Pharmaceuticals (later re-named Cadent Therapeutics), which was acquired by Novartis to further develop their novel NMDA receptor modulators. 

MindImmune claims in its announcement that it has “made a fundamental discovery that may relate to the progression of Alzheimer’s disease.”

According to the company, it has found that cells of the peripheral immune system enter and cause damage to neurons afflicted with Alzheimer’s pathology. MindImmune aims to develop a novel therapeutic antibody to act in the peripheral system to block immune cells from causing neural damage, thereby reducing cognitive symptoms and slowing progression of this devastating disease. The company is pursuing further research on the premise that this neuroinflammatory process may be the cause of central nervous system (CNS) damage in a broader range of neurodegenerative conditions.

“We are honored to have the support of both existing and new investors, several of which are recognized for their deep sector competence in the field of neurodegenerative diseases,” said Stevin Zorn, President and CEO of MindImmune. “With the resources provided, we are excited to accelerate our preclinical R&D activities, aiming to advance our lead program to IND candidate stage.”

According to Tracy Saxton, Ph.D., Managing Director at Dolby Family Ventures, “MindImmune has distinguished itself in pioneering a potentially fundamental new approach to modulate the innate immune response in Alzheimer’s disease. We are pleased to back this outstanding group of scientific founders to advance our understanding of the role of the innate immune system in the progression of Alzheimer’s disease, and to nominate a clinical candidate directly aiming to block the damage caused by these peripheral immune cells.”

As a part of this financing, the ADDF is supporting research on a new way to measure immune cell recruitment in patients with Alzheimer’s disease. This assay is designed to quantify the amount of peripheral immune cells recruited into the CNS in Alzheimer’s disease as well as potentially serve as a diagnostic and/or biomarker of neuroinflammation in patients afflicted with Alzheimer’s, aiding the broader R&D community as well as MindImmune’s internal program.

Based at the University of Rhode Island, MindImmune benefits from an affiliation with the George & Anne Ryan Institute for Neuroscience, Kingston, RI.