Noema Pharma develops drugs to treat rare neurological disorders that arise on account of imbalanced neuronal networks. Clinical development can now be advanced for four relevant product candidates after Noema Pharma successfully closed a financing round by raising a total of 54 million Swiss francs, as detailed in a press release. In addition, the Basel-based pharma group Roche has now received a shareholding in Noema in exchange for rights to the four product candidates. These aim to combat “seizures in tuberous sclerosis complex (TSC), trigeminal neuralgia, Tourette syndrome and other rare neurological disorders”.

“The successful licensing of these exciting clinical-stage product candidates from Roche, together with our up-sized CHF 54 million Series A financing, will enable Noema to reach value-creating development milestones with all four products”, comments Luigi Costa, CEO of Noema, in the press release, before adding: “We are honored to have garnered continued support from our seed investor, Sofinnova Partners, and to have attracted Polaris Partners as a co-lead investor. We are equally pleased to welcome highly experienced specialist investors Gilde Healthcare, Invus and BioMed Partners”.

Antoine Papiernik, Chairman and Managing Partner of Sofinnova Partners, and Darren Carroll, Partner at Polaris Partners, will both become members of the newly formed Board of Directors at Noema Pharma. While Papiernik underlined the work conducted by Noema up to this point that has aimed “to bring ground-breaking therapies to patients with debilitating neurological disorders”, Carroll, for his part, described the company as a “prime example of the exceptional pharma-grade assets Europe has to offer, along with a flourishing talent pool”.