Congratulations to UK DRI Director Prof Bart De Strooper for being part of the team behind the new €60m company Muna Therapeutics, which aims to develop small molecules to repair neuronal dysfunction and resolve neuroinflammation. Muna is focused on addressing the staggering unmet need experienced by people affected by dementia around the world. Muna means ‘to remember’ in Old Norse.
Muna is a combination of two innovative European start-up companies: ‘K5 Therapeutics’ was co-founded by UK DRI Director Prof Bart De Strooper and ‘Muna’ was founded by Prof Simon Glerup and his team from Aarhus University, both in 2020.
Prof Bart De Strooper, UK DRI Director, said:
“The launch of Muna is a huge step forwards in focusing groundbreaking science towards the development of treatments to slow or stop dementia. The development of innovative ecosystems like this is critical and is why at the UK DRI we are also working closely with industry and launching spin-outs.”
Muna’s innovative all-in-human target discovery and validation platform is based on proprietary insights into molecular pathways in different human brain cell types that underlie disease pathology and resilience to neurodegeneration, based on work from the De Strooper and Glerup laboratories. Muna has built a cutting-edge small molecule drug discovery engine that leverages high-resolution target structural approaches, AI-driven computational chemistry and cell-based screening. The financing will be used to advance Muna’s small molecule programs focused on repairing neuronal dysfunction, resolving neuroinflammation and restoring neuroprotection and resilience to disease.
Muna Therapeutics will be based in Copenhagen and Leuven and is led by pharma executives CEO Rita Balice-Gordon and COO Anders Hinsby.
Rita Balice-Gordon, CEO of Muna Therapeutics, said:
“We are in an era of rapid advancement in understanding how to slow or stop the relentless progression of neurodegenerative diseases like Alzheimer’s and Frontotemporal Dementia that devastate cognition and quality of life of patients as well as caregivers. Our team is committed to leveraging our collective expertise to deliver impactful disease modifying small molecule therapeutics to patients as rapidly as possible.”
The financing for Muna Therapeutics, private biopharmaceutical company, is co-led by Novo Holdings, Sofinnova Partners, Droia Ventures and LSP Dementia Fund, with participation from Polaris Partners, Polaris Innovation Fund, Sanofi Ventures and V-Bio Ventures.
