Trevena completes $35M Series B financing

7/14/2010

Trevena, Inc., the leader in discovery and development of G-protein coupled receptor (GPCR) biased ligands, announced today that it has completed a $35 million Series B financing. Existing investors Polaris Venture Partners and New Enterprise Associates led the round, with all other existing Trevena investors - Alta Partners, Healthcare Ventures and Yasuda Enterprise Development Company - also participating in the financing. Proceeds will be used to complete a Phase 2 study of Trevena's lead molecule, TRV120027, an angiotensin II type I receptor (AT1R) beta-arrestin biased ligand for treatment of acute heart failure, and to continue advancing Trevena's portfolio of GPCR biased ligands.

    “Despite the success of GPCR targeted drugs to date, there is huge scope to enhance the therapeutic properties of these molecules through more targeted signaling”

Trevena's novel drug discovery approach deploys a proprietary platform to uncover downstream biological pathways eliciting beneficial and deleterious effects of a target GPCR. Trevena then uses its platform to discover "biased ligands" that activate only the pathways associated with the beneficial effects, allowing them to unlock new biology and avoid drug side effects. The company's drug discovery technology is based on extensive research from the laboratories of leading scientists in the GPCR field - Robert J. Lefkowitz, M.D. and Howard A. Rockman, M.D. of Duke University Medical Center. Trevena's primary therapeutic areas of interest are cardiovascular disease, pain and inflammation.

"Despite the success of GPCR targeted drugs to date, there is huge scope to enhance the therapeutic properties of these molecules through more targeted signaling," said Maxine Gowen, Ph.D., president and chief executive officer of Trevena. "We share with our investors a belief in the potential of biased ligands to define the next generation of GPCR medicines. This financing will allow us to demonstrate clinical proof of concept for TRV120027, the first biased ligand dosed in human clinical trials, and to advance our pain and inflammation programs through discovery and into the clinic."

Terrance G. McGuire, co-founder and managing general partner of Polaris Venture Partners, added, "We are delighted with the progress that Trevena has made, and their ability to translate the founding research into a growing pipeline of differentiated drugs. Data that Trevena have generated showing the unique biological properties of their biased ligands are compelling, and continue to excite our syndicate."