Overview
PARIS (20 November 2017) – McDermott Will & Emery has advised investors in Horama, the French biotech company based in Paris and Nantes, that specializes in gene therapy for the treatment of rare, inherited retinal diseases, on a €19 million Series B financing from four new investment funds (Kurma Partners, the lead investor; Fund+; Pontifax; and Idinvest) and from the company’s historical investors (Omnes Capital; GO Capital; and Sham Innovation Santé/Turenne).
The fundraising has enabled the financing of the development of Horama’s HORA-PDE6B project, including the recently-authorized start of its clinical phase.
This financing round follows the €4 million raised in July 2016 (the Series A financing).
Horama has developed a diversified portfolio drawing on its gene-therapy platform, whose two main programs have orphan-drug status: HORA-PDE6B (retinitis pigmentosa), which will soon be administered to the first-ever patient in a Phase I/II clinical trial; and HORA-RLPB1 (RPA or Retinitis Punctata Albescens), which is at a nonclinical stage.
HORA-PDE6B is a drug candidate for the treatment of retinitis pigmentosa caused by mutations in the PDE6B gene. This replacement gene therapy provides a non-mutated copy of the PDE6B gene to express a functional PDE6β protein. There is currently no approved treatment for retinitis pigmentosa.
The McDermott Will & Emery team was led by partner Anthony Paronneau, supported by associates Laetitia de Dinechin and Tess Souquet-Basiege.
About McDermott
McDermott Will & Emery is a premier international law firm with a diversified business practice. Numbering more than 1,000 lawyers, we have offices in Boston, Brussels, Chicago, Dallas, Düsseldorf, Frankfurt, Houston, London, Los Angeles, Miami, Milan, Munich, New York, Orange County, Paris, Seoul, Silicon Valley and Washington, DC. Further extending our reach into Asia, we have a strategic alliance with MWE China Law Offices in Shanghai.
