Milan. April 18, 2023.
Funding to accelerate the development of innovative CRISPR-based therapies
Alia Therapeutics, a Trento-based start-up specializing in innovative treatments for rare genetic diseases using next-generation gene editing technology, has secured an initial funding increase of €4.4 million led by Sofinnova Partners, one of the leading European venture capital firms with offices in Paris, London and Milan. Other investors include Indaco Bio, a recently created biotech fund, and a group of Italian investors brought together by Banor SIM and Banca Profilo. The funds will bolster Alia's proprietary CRISPR technology and facilitate the company's expansion. Alia is a spin-off from the University of Trento and was accelerated at BiovelocITA, Italy's first biotech accelerator co-founded in 2015 by Sofinnova Partners and the entrepreneurs in Silvano Spinelli and Gabriella Camboni series. The work of Alia's scientific founder, virologist Anna Cereseto, was listed in January among Nature's seven technologies to watch in 2023. "While CRISPR-Cas9 has proven extremely useful for genome editing, there is still scope for more compactly improve strategies targeting a wide variety of genes, while preserving activity and specificity and ultimately increasing safety for human therapeutic purposes," said Paola Pozzi, Partner at Sofinnova Partners. "With these new funds, Alia will further strengthen its patent portfolio and develop its innovative platform for CRISPR-based medicine, enabling new tailored gene editing strategies to overcome the current limitations of genome editing to bring more therapies to patients." patients with neglected and currently untreatable diseases and conditions.""Alia's platform is already addressing the challenge of effective screening for highly specific Cas9 variants," said Silvano Spinelli, Chairman of the Board of Directors. "This funding will help the company build its team and continue to drive gene editing-based therapeutics forward into a new era." About Alia Therapeutics Alia Therapeutics is an Italian biotech start-up whose mission is to develop innovative treatments for incurable genetic diseases using gene editing technology. The company was founded in October 2018 by Anna Cereseto and a group of researchers from CIBIO, the biotechnology department of the University of Trento, who discovered the core CRISPR technologies exploited by the start-up. About Sofinnova Partners Sofinnova Partners is a company European venture capital leader in life sciences, specializing in health and sustainability. Based in Paris, London and Milan, the company brings together a team of professionals from around the world with strong scientific, medical and business backgrounds. Sofinnova Partners is dedicated to the creation of companies along the entire value chain of life sciences investments, from the seed phase to the later stages. The firm actively partners with ambitious entrepreneurs as a lead or foundation investor to develop transformative innovations that have the potential to positively influence our collective future. Founded in 1972, Sofinnova Partners is a well-established European venture capital firm with 50 years of experience supporting more than 500 companies and creating market leaders around the world. Currently, Sofinnova Partners manages more than 2,500 million euros. For more information, visit: sofinnovapartners.com.For more information on Sofinnova Telethon, visit https://sofinnovapartners.com/strategy/t....
Contact Contact name: Silvano Spinelli Contact description: Chairman of the Board of Directors, Alia Therapeutics Contact telephone number: 39 0461 283917
