PC: Entrackr
Ahammune Biosciences, a pioneering biotech startup based out of Pune, has made major headlines recently with it raising a sum of $5 million in funding in a Series A round led by pi Ventures. The round saw contributions from Capital2B, Colossa Ventures, Bipin Agarwal and Unicornus Maximus LLP, apart from existing investors Ideaspring Capital, Kotak Alternate Assets, Legacy Assets LLP, and IAN, as a strong vote of confidence in the innovative approach towards therapeutics of skin diseases that the company is undertaking.
Fresh capital infusion of $5 million was earmarked for key initiatives in Ahammune Biosciences. The funds were targeted for drugs under development for another skin disease, vitiligo, which removes colors from a person’s skin; Ahammune is targeting human Phase II clinical trials. The funding will also expand Ahammune’s patent portfolio and advance its R&D work on such immune-mediated skin diseases.
Ahammune Biosciences was founded in 2016 by Parul Ganju and Krishnamurthy Natarajan with the aim of becoming a clinical-stage therapeutics company that would treat and cure skin diseases. It shall focus on chronic skin conditions that have unmet medical needs within dermatology, targeting the improvement of overall skin health based on its proprietary small molecule therapeutics platform.
Ahammune’s lead program involves a new drug candidate for the disease of vitiligo, which is significantly debilitating. The company claims specific unique attributes of its drug candidate being small molecules and not an inducer of generalized immunosuppression. Instead, it has the first-of-class mechanism of action, capable of not only stopping the spread of skin patches but also reviving the function of melanocytes, or cells responsible for skin pigmentation, to stimulate repigmentation.
In addition to Ahammune’s work on vitiligo, the company is working hard to develop a pipeline of patented molecules to treat a spectrum of dermatological and autoimmune diseases. The firm intends to further build on the strength of its patent portfolio around its proprietary technology, which is a small molecule therapeutics platform. This is through strategic focus on key cellular processes that influence skin health and immunity. As well, Ahammune is interested in making strategic partnership deals with pharmaceutical companies for co-development of assets so as to maximize their reach and commercial potential.
The latest financing deal surely testifies to the investor’s trust in Ahammune’s novel ideas in building therapies for diseases of the skin but also pushes the company toward its mission of offering cost-effective as well as pathbreaking treatments for dermatological diseases. Taking up advanced work in the future of skin disease therapies, Ahammune Biosciences is one of the leaders in the ways that are going to drive innovation within the biotech landscape and bring hope to patients suffering with chronic skin ailments all around the globe.
