The Dementia Discovery Fund’s Portfolio Company Caraway Therapeutics Establishes Collaboration with AbbVie to develop small molecule therapeutics targeting Parkinson’s disease and other neurodegenerative disorders

in SV News

Boston, MA (US) and London (UK) – June 9, 2021. The Dementia Discovery Fund (DDF) is pleased to announce that Caraway Therapeutics, a portfolio company originally incubated and seeded by DDF and SV Health Investors, has signed an exclusive collaboration, license, and option agreement with AbbVie (NYSE: ABBV) to develop and commercialize Caraway’s small molecule therapeutics targeting TMEM175. TMEM175 is a potassium ion channel critical to lysosomal function implicated in both Parkinson’s disease (PD) and other neurodegenerative disorders.

Under the terms of the agreement, Caraway will receive an upfront cash payment of $17 million. After Caraway completes certain pre-clinical research and development activities for the collaboration program, AbbVie has an option to license the program and proceed into IND-enabling studies, clinical development, and commercialization.

Caraway is eligible to receive up to $267 million in payments, including upfront and future option payments, and development milestones. Caraway is also eligible to receive additional regulatory and commercial milestones, tiered royalties on global commercial sales, and has the option to participate in product development in return for higher royalty rates.

Further details of Caraway’s collaboration with AbbVie can be found in the press release issued by Caraway Therapeutics on their website: https://carawaytx.com/news/

Dr. Jonathan Behr, Partner at The Dementia Discovery Fund, and a Board Director of Caraway Therapeutics, said,Today’s collaboration with AbbVie highlights the significant progress that Caraway Therapeutics has made since the company was started by DDF and SV Health investors in 2017 based on the insights and vision of its Co-Founders, including Venture Partner Tim Harris, now Chair of Caraway’s Scientific Advisory Board. We are confident that by working together with AbbVie, the company can continue to successfully develop novel small molecule therapeutics, targeting TMEM175, which are designed to bring important clinical benefits to patients with Parkinson’s disease and other neurodegenerative disorders.”

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About The Dementia Discovery Fund

The Dementia Discovery Fund (DDF) is a £250m specialist venture capital fund investing in, and creating, biotech companies pursuing transformational therapeutic approaches for dementias including Alzheimer’s disease. The DDF brings significant capital and domain expertise to enable talented entrepreneurs to bring therapeutics addressing one of the world’s largest unmet medical needs to the clinic – ultimately aiming to generate significant returns for its investors. The DDF is enabled by its networks and influential group of investors including some leading pharmaceutical companies (Biogen, Eli Lilly and Co., GSK, Johnson & Johnson, Otsuka (Astex), Pfizer and Takeda), along with AARP, Aegon, Bill Gates, British Patient Capital, NFL Players Association, Quest Diagnostics, UnitedHealth Group, the UK Government’s Department of Health and Social Care, and the charity Alzheimer’s Research UK. The Fund is managed by SV Health Investors. Learn more at www.TheDDFund.com

About SV Health Investors

SV Health Investors is a leading healthcare fund manager committed to investing in tomorrow’s healthcare breakthroughs. The SV family of funds invests across stages, geographic regions, and sectors, with expertise spanning biotechnology, dementia, healthcare growth, healthcare technology and public equities. With approximately $2.7 billion in assets under management and a truly transatlantic presence with offices in Boston and London, SV has built an extensive network of talented investment professionals and experienced industry veterans. Since its founding in 1993, SV has invested in more than 200 companies with more than 90 of these having achieved successful acquisitions or IPOs.

For more information, please see www.svhealthinvestors.com

FOR MORE INFORMATION
Dementia Discovery Fund
Laurence Barker (Partner), Jonathan Behr (Partner), Christian Jung (Partner)
tfinn@svhealthinvestors.com

Citigate Dewe Rogerson
Sylvie Berrebi, Frazer Hall, Mark Swallow PhD
DDF@citigatedewerogerson.com
Tel: +44 (0)20 7638 9571

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