Ahammune Biosciences has raised $5 million in a Series A funding round led by early-stage venture fund, pi Ventures.
The fundraise also saw participation from Capital2B, Colossa Ventures, Bipin Agarwal, Unicornus Maximus LLP, and existing investors, Ideaspring Capital, Kotak Alternate Assets, Legacy Assets LLP, and IAN.
The company will use the newly raised capital to help conduct Phase II human clinical trials for its vitiligo drug candidate, expand its patent portfolio, and advance efforts for other immune-mediated skin diseases. Vitiligo is a chronic skin condition with a recurring appearance of white patches.
In a conversation with YourStory, Ahammune Co-founder Dr Parul Ganju said that the end-to-end Phase II trial will take the company about two years but they will be able to see the endpoints before that.
Ahammune’s strategy is to expand its patent portfolio in the meantime around its proprietary technology—a small molecule therapeutics platform focused on treating skin conditions by targeting cellular processes that influence skin health and immunity. It is also developing a pipeline of patented molecules to treat other dermatological and autoimmune diseases.
“Post this (Phase II trial), we are looking for two things, either take this for the next fundraise round series, the bigger fundraise round for taking it for commercialisation after doing Phase III, or we are also looking for partners to co-develop this drug candidate for the global market,” Dr Ganju told YourStory.
According to Dr Ganju, the company now has enough cash runway for research and development for the next two years.
Founded in 2016 by Dr Ganju and Dr Krishnamurthy Natarajan, Ahammune aims to become one of the major drug discovery players in the country’s dermatological sector and aims to solve conditions that affect people globally.
“So, they (Ahammune) are solving the problem of vitiligo for now…and there is a big gap in the market in terms of finding a cost-effective, safe and effective drug which doesn’t exist. Ammune’s drug has a first-in-class mechanism… So, there’s a huge competitive advantage that Ammune has,” Roopan Aulakh, Managing Director at pi Ventures, told YourStory.
While Aulakh did not disclose the exact amount of investment in Ahammune, she added that pi Ventures contributed to less than 50% of the $5-million fund.
