Horama, a specialist in ophthalmic diseases gene therapy, has completed a EUR4 million Series A financing with a syndicate composed of Omnes Capital, Sham Innovation Santé advised by Turenne Capital and GO Capital (via its fund GO Capital Amorçage).
This fundraising will support the development of two products, HORA-PDE6B and HORA-RLPB1, as well as the reinforcement of Horama’s team.
Christine Placet, formerly chairman of the management board at Trophos, sold to Roche in 2015, recently joined the company as managing director and investor. Several recruitments are currently in progress to build a specialised team of experts in drug development.
Created in March 2014, Horama is developing new gene therapies for the treatment of hereditary retinopathies pigmentosa, which are orphan ophthalmological diseases. The company gathers the expertise of internationally renowned scientific experts in the field of ophthalmologic gene therapies. Its ambition is to help slow down visual loss and even improve the visual function by injecting a specific viral vector based on adeno-associated viruses (AAV). Horama’s scientific founding team (Nantes and Montpellier, France) is the first one in France to have completed an ophthalmology gene therapy study in 2011.
“I am grateful to Omnes Capital, Sham Innovation Santé and GO Capital for their trust,” says Denis Cayet, chairman and founding shareholder of Horama. “This financing round is a recognition of our potential to successfully develop new ophthalmic gene therapies, for tens of thousands of patients without any treatment to date. It will help the company to be appropriately structured to efficiently progress into the clinic of HORA-PDE6B and actively pursue the development of HORA-RLPB1.”
Bruno Montanari, partner, Omnes Capital, says: “We are delighted to be working with Horama and support the development of treatments addressing ophthalmic rare diseases, with the ambition for Horama to become an undisputed gene therapy leader in this area. This investment confirms our strategy to support outstanding teams and high technology content-driven start-ups, bringing new therapeutic solutions to patients.”
Leila Nicolas, investment manager, GO Capital, adds: “We are very proud to support Horama, which has been able to develop a unique portfolio of products, an impressive know how and technology platform within the field of Ocular Gene Therapy.”
Mounia Chaoui, partner of Turenne Capital and representative of Sham Innovation Santé, adds: “We are very pleased to support Horama in its development. The quality of its science, the team’s expertise and the therapeutic potential of its products are the main assets that have convinced GO Capital, in addition to its regional implantation in Nantes."
