ENTHERA-PHARMACEUTICALS
28.7.2020 10:02:05 CEST | Business Wire | Press release
Enthera Pharmaceuticals (“Enthera”), a biotech company developing disease-modifying biologics to transform the therapeutic paradigm of specific autoimmune conditions by re-establishing stem cell capabilities in a non-traditional way, today announces the completion of a €28 million Series A financing round.
The Series A was co-led by seed investor Sofinnova Partners, a leading European life sciences venture capital firm based in Paris, London and Milan, and incoming investor AbbVie, with further investment from the JDRF T1D Fund (the venture capital fund of JDRF) and several Italian investors including a group coordinated by Banor SIM, a group coordinated by Banca Profilo through Arepo Fiduciaria and Indaco Venture Partners SGR. The €28 million raised is the largest VC-backed Series A funding round for an Italian biotechnology company to date.
The Series A marks AbbVie’s first venture investment into an Italian company. Enthera was also the first European investment of the JDRF T1D fund, who previously invested in the Company during its €4 million seed extension funding round in 2018.
The proceeds from the Series A financing will be used to obtain clinical proof-of-concept through a first-in-human study of Ent001, Enthera’s lead candidate. Ent001 is the only drug in development with the potential to restore the pancreatic beta cell compartment in type 1 diabetes as well as the original intestine structure in inflammatory bowel disease, in order to re-establish organ function. The funds will also be used to further develop Enthera’s pipeline.
Commenting on the successful Series A financing, Giovanni Amabile, CEO of Enthera, said: “Having renowned investors Sofinnova Partners, AbbVie and JDRF T1D Fund choosing to support us on our journey is great validation of our company strategy and scientific method, and gives credit to the innovative science that is currently underway in Italy.
“We have a revolutionary approach that offers a new perspective for intractable diseases such as type 1 diabetes and inflammatory bowel disease, and the funds raised will enable us to accelerate our lead program Ent001 to clinical proof-of-concept. Through this and the development of our wider pipeline, we have the opportunity to bring real hope to patients in need and to provide effective and safe treatments.”
Graziano Seghezzi, Managing Partner of Sofinnova Partners, who co-seeded the company, stated:
“Enthera’s Series A financing is a fantastic milestone enabled by the leadership of Giovanni who, since his arrival in the company, has expanded its activities into novel therapeutic areas. This is also an opportunity for us to applaud BiovelocITA’s role in transforming the breakthrough science originating from Paolo Fiorina and his team into a full-fledged enterprise. Enthera is a salient example of what can be achieved when the critical components of a biotech ecosystem are brought together to accelerate innovation in Italy: World-class science, experienced management, and dedicated financial capital.”
Margarita Chavez, Managing Director of AbbVie Ventures and new addition to the Enthera Board of Directors, added: “AbbVie Ventures’ investment in Enthera’s Series A demonstrates our confidence in the team and their unique approach to treating underserved autoimmune disorders. I look forward to working with Giovanni and rest of the team as we drive the Company and its innovation forward.”
Enthera was formed in 2016 on the basis of research by scientific founders Prof. Paolo Fiorina and Dr. Francesca D’Addio. The Company is the first spin-off of the Italian biotech accelerator BiovelocITA, founded by Sofinnova Partners, Silvano Spinelli and Gabriella Camboni, which provided the initial seed fund. A seed extension was financed in 2018 by Sofinnova Partners, JDRF T1D fund and the other existing investors.
ENDS
Notes to Editors
About Enthera
Enthera Srl is a biotech company developing first-in-class biologics to transform the treatment paradigm of specific autoimmune conditions by re-establishing stem cell capabilities in a non-traditional way. The Company’s primary target indications are type 1 diabetes (T1D) and inflammatory bowel disease (IBD).
Enthera's pioneering approach capitalizes on the key discovery of the IGFBP3/TMEM219 pathway, which is involved in beta cell and stem cell apoptosis in pancreas and gut, respectively.
The Company is building a pipeline of inhibitory monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) and fusion proteins targeting the pathway via multiple angles. Its lead program Ent001 is the only drug in development with the potential to restore the endogenous pancreatic stem cell compartment in T1D as well as the original intestine structure in IBD, in order to re-establish organ function.
Enthera is a private company headquartered in Milan, Italy and founded in 2016 by Prof Paolo Fiorina and Dr Francesca D’Addio at BiovelocITA, an Italian biotech accelerator. The Company is backed by Sofinnova Partners and JDRF T1D fund. Enthera’s discovery engine and assets are protected by a broad portfolio of patents.
For more information, visit https://www.entherapharmaceuticals.com/
Connect with us on LinkedIn .
About Sofinnova Partners
Sofinnova Partners is a leading European venture capital firm specialized in Life Sciences. Based in Paris, France, with offices in London and Milan, the firm brings together a team of 40 professionals from all over Europe, the U.S. and Asia. The firm focuses on paradigm-shifting technologies alongside visionary entrepreneurs. Sofinnova Partners invests across the Life Sciences value chain as a lead or cornerstone investor, from very early-stage opportunities to late-stage/public companies. It has backed nearly 500 companies over more than 48 years, creating market leaders around the globe. Today, Sofinnova Partners has over €2 billion under management.
For more information, please visit: www.sofinnovapartners.com
About AbbVie Ventures
AbbVie Ventures is the corporate venture capital group of AbbVie. We are a strategic investor, investing exclusively in novel, potentially transformational science aligned with AbbVie's core R&D interests. We measure success primarily by the extent to which our investments foster innovation with potential to transform the lives of patients that AbbVie serves. AbbVie Ventures enables its portfolio companies with both funding as well as access to AbbVie's internal network of experts across all phases of drug development, from drug discovery through commercialization.
For more information, please visit www.abbvie.com/ventures
For more information about AbbVie, please visit us at www.abbvie.com . Follow @abbvie on Twitter, Facebook , Instagram , YouTube and LinkedIn .
About the JDRF T1D Fund
The JDRF T1D Fund is a venture philanthropy fund accelerating life-changing solutions to cure, prevent and treat type 1 diabetes (T1D) through catalytic equity investments. Through its investments in partnership with private capital, including venture capital, corporations and foundations, the T1D Fund seeks to attract the private investment necessary to advance therapeutics, devices, diagnostics and vaccines into the hands of those living with T1D. The T1D Fund invests in areas strategically aligned with JDRF, the leading global organization funding T1D research, with an exclusive focus on supporting the best commercial opportunities. The T1D Fund reinvests any realized gains into new investments to further its mission.
BiovelocITA
BiovelocITA S.r.l. is the first Italian accelerator dedicated to biotech. It was founded by Silvano Spinelli, Gabriella Camboni and Sofinnova Partners. Thanks to BiovelocITA, entrepreneurs, scientists and investors can work together to accelerate biotech projects with an international scope and reach the “proof of concept” that precedes the clinical phase. Set up to offer innovative solutions to the medical community and to patients, BiovelocITA supports the creation and development of innovative biotech companies in all therapeutic areas.
For more information, see: http://www.biovelocita.com
View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200728005076/en/
Link:
About Business Wire
Subscribe to releases from Business Wire
Subscribe to all the latest releases from Business Wire by registering your e-mail address below. You can unsubscribe at any time.
Latest releases from Business Wire
Garvan Institute of Medical Research Joins Parse Biosciences’ Certified Service Provider Network15.7.2026 22:00:00 CEST | Press release
Researchers across Asia-Pacific gain a new option for high-quality single cell sequencing through Garvan's Evercode WT services Parse Biosciences, a QIAGEN company, and the leader in scalable and accessible single cell sequencing, today announced that the Genomics Platform Core Facility within the Garvan Institute of Medical Research has joined its Certified Service Provider (CSP) Program. The partnership broadens access to high-quality, scalable single cell sequencing across Australia, the wider Asia-Pacific region, and beyond. Garvan is one of Australia's preeminent medical research institutions, with the Genomics Platform having deep experience in cell sorting, capture, and sequencing. As a Certified Service Provider, Garvan will offer Parse's Evercode WT kits to researchers across the region. "We see a growing number of requests for Parse projects and find the technology easy to implement and run, generating great data," said Chris O'Keeffe, Cellular Genomics Lead at the Garvan Ins
Grafana Labs Named a Leader in 2026 Gartner® Magic Quadrant™ for Observability Platforms and Positioned Furthest in Completeness of Vision15.7.2026 20:21:00 CEST | Press release
Named a Leader for the third consecutive year and placed furthest in vision for the second year in a row, the company has had a landmark year of innovation as observability becomes essential infrastructure for teams building and running AI at scale. Grafana Labs, the company behind the open observability cloud, today announced it has been named a Leader in the Gartner® Magic Quadrant™ for Observability Platforms for the third consecutive year, and positioned furthest on the Completeness of Vision axis for the second year running. This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20260715814984/en/ 2026 Gartner® Magic Quadrant™ for Observability Platforms We believe this placement reflects where the market is headed: toward open, composable observability that helps teams in the AI era understand systems that are increasingly complex and agentic, and rapidly scaling thanks to AI-assisted engineering. A Platform Built for the AI Era
Spectro Cloud Raises $100 Million Series D to Help Customers Move AI Infrastructure Into Production Across Enterprise, Public Sector, Neocloud and Sovereign Cloud Environments15.7.2026 18:20:00 CEST | Press release
Growth Equity at Goldman Sachs Alternatives leads oversubscribed round with strategic participation from AMD Ventures, Ericsson, LG Technology Ventures, and Maximus as organizations look to turn AI silicon into business outcomes Spectro Cloud, a leading provider of AI infrastructure management software, today announced it has raised more than $100 million in an oversubscribed Series D funding round led by Growth Equity at Goldman Sachs Alternatives, with strategic participation from AMD Ventures, Ericsson, LG Technology Ventures, and Maximus. The new funding brings Spectro Cloud’s total capital raised to $260 million and will accelerate the company’s mission to help enterprises, public sector organizations, neoclouds and sovereign clouds build and operate production AI infrastructure with greater control over cost, security and governance. This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20260715551858/en/ Spectro Cloud raises $
K-Beauty Goes Global: Sales Surge 53% as Korean Innovation Reshapes Beauty Growth15.7.2026 16:00:00 CEST | Press release
New NIQ data shows K-Beauty value sales rose 53% year-over-year and 131% over two years, underscoring how regional beauty trends, social commerce and ingredient-led innovation are reshaping global beauty growth. NIQ (NYSE: NIQ), a global leader in consumer intelligence, today released new findings showing K-Beauty has become a rapidly growing global beauty segment, with value sales up 53% year-over-year and 131% over the past two years. The data points to a broader shift in beauty growth, as regional innovation, social commerce and digitally driven consumer demand increasingly shape what scales globally. This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20260715867578/en/ K-Beauty accelerates across global markets In its latest report, K-Beauty Goes Global, NIQ shows how Korean beauty is reshaping consumer expectations, accelerating innovation cycles and redefining competitive dynamics across the global beauty market. What began
Viz.ai to Support the MINUTE Trial, a Landmark Multicenter Study Evaluating the SCUBA Technique for the Treatment of Intracerebral Hemorrhage15.7.2026 15:00:00 CEST | Press release
Viz Neuro™ Suite, including Viz ICH™ and Viz ICH Plus™, to facilitate rapid detection and care coordination for patients with basal ganglia hemorrhage across trial sites nationwide. Viz.ai, the leader in AI-powered disease detection and intelligent care coordination, today announced its support for the Minimally Invasive Neurosurgery Trial for Ultra-early Treatment (MINUTE) Trial, a prospective, multicenter, randomized study evaluating whether the SCUBA technique, an endoscopic, catheter-based approach for ultra-early evacuation of basal ganglia intracerebral hemorrhage (BGH), is a promising alternative to standard medical management to potentially improve functional patient outcomes. The study aims to initiate both randomization and surgical intervention within 120 minutes of key clinical time points, reflecting the urgent nature of intracerebral hemorrhage care. Participating sites will have the ability to leverage the Viz Neuro Suite platform, including Viz ICH and Viz ICH Plus, to
In our pressroom you can read all our latest releases, find our press contacts, images, documents and other relevant information about us.
Visit our pressroom