Jeito Capital leads €20 Million Investment in InnoSkel, a New Gene Therapy Company and leader in rare skeletal disorders - Financial Post | Canada News Media
Jeito Capital leads €20 Million Investment in InnoSkel, a New Gene Therapy Company and leader in rare skeletal disorders
Jeito’s third international investment in H2 2020, with deep and rapidly accelerating pipeline
Therachon’s Founder, Elvire Gouze, launches latest new gene therapy company in her field of excellence
€20 million Series A financing, sees Jeito co-investing again with Vida Ventures
Paris, France, 14 December 2020 – Jeito Capital (“Jeito”), a rapidly emerging independent investor dedicated to biotech and biopharma, today announces that it has led a €20 million Series A financing in InnoSkel, a newly launched pioneering platform biotechnology company developing therapies for rare and life-threatening skeletal diseases. Jeito co-led the financing in a high-quality syndicate with Vida Ventures and with additional support from The Turenne Group. InnoSkel becomes Jeito’s third investment in the past four months, following SparingVision and Neogene, and Jeito’s first backing of a female CEO, as part of its vision and mission.
Proceeds from the financing will be used to advance InnoSkel’s asset pipeline from its dedicated gene therapy platform. Notably, this includes a group of rare and life-threatening skeletal disorders collectively known as type 2 collagenopathies. InnoSkel’s lead asset focuses on the most severe of these disorders, a neonatal presenting skeletal disorder called Spondyloepiphyseal Dysplasia congenita (“SEDc”). SEDc is a rare genetic disease that results in short stature and skeletal abnormalities primarily affecting the spine and long bones of the arms and legs. It affects approximately 1 in 100,000 individuals, and there is currently no approved curative treatment with available therapeutic options focusing on clinical management, including multiple severe surgeries and multidisciplinary care.
InnoSkel is led by Elvire Gouze, a serial entrepreneur and expert in skeletal disorders, whose first successful venture TherAchon, a biotech company focusing on achondroplasia, a rare bone disease, was acquired during Phase 1 clinical development for $810m by Pfizer in 2019.
Rafaèle Tordjman, Founder and CEO at Jeito, said: “The investment in InnoSkel is testament to our commitment to contribute to the development of both the French and European healthcare ecosystem and invest in platforms with several products and the potential to be market leaders in a field with high unmet needs. InnoSkel has made significant progress within an area of such unmet need and intends to provide innovative treatments for patients suffering from a vast array of pediatric skeletal diseases, in which currently there are no approved curative therapies. Additionally, we are pleased to be working with a team that has previously had such tremendous success in the field of skeletal diseases.
“Our latest investment is another great addition to Jeito’s international portfolio, demonstrating our continued strength in deal flow and ambition and dedication to backing female entrepreneurs. We are also delighted to again be investing with Vida Ventures.”
Elvire Gouze, InnoSkel’s Founder and Chief Executive Officer, said: “InnoSkel is committed to developing an innovative gene therapy platform that will allow the specific treatment of a wide variety of life-threatening skeletal diseases for which there are currently no curative therapies. The attraction of such distinguished investors like Jeito Capital and Vida Ventures indicates strong support of our science as well as our mission to deliver life altering therapies to patients with such unmet need.”
Rajul Jain, MD, Director of Vida Ventures, said:“We are very pleased to once again invest with Jeito in an innovative technology that has the potential to transform the treatment paradigm and deliver life-changing outcomes in an area of unmet medical need. We are impressed by Innoskel’s bold vision and are thrilled to support their outstanding management team as they advance their mission of developing gene therapies for patients with rare skeletal disorders.”
ENDS
About Jeito Capital Jeito Capital is an international investment company with a patient benefit driven approach that focuses both on financing ground-breaking medical innovation and promoting positive societal impact. Jeito has a unique, long-term investment strategy, with the aim of providing continuity from clinical development to market access for breakthrough drugs with validated proofs of concept. This continuity is expressed both in the support provided to entrepreneurs by the Jeito Capital team and by the investment of significant capital to ensure the growth of companies, the acceleration towards commercialization and faster access to these major innovations. Jeito Capital is based in Paris with a presence in Europe and the United States. For more information, please visit www.jeito.life, on LinkedIn or follow on Twitter @Jeito_life.
About InnoSkel InnoSkel is a pioneering platform biotechnology company developing therapies for rare skeletal diseases. InnoSkel is developing treatment options for a group of rare skeletal disorders collectively known as type 2 collagenopathies, the most severe of which is Spondyloepiphyseal Dysplasia congenita (SEDc), the second leading cause of dwarfism worldwide. InnoSkel’s lead gene therapy asset for SEDc has demonstrated good efficacy in proof-of-concept studies. The company’s fundamental mission is to improve the lives of patients living with skeletal dysplasia and to answer their unmet needs, keeping their voices at the heart of all they do. InnoSkel is a spin-out of the Institut de Biology Valrose at Inserm, the French National Institute of Health and Medical Research, and is based in Nice, France.
For more information, visit www.innoskel.com.
Dr Elvire Gouze, CEO and Founder of InnoSkel InnoSkel is led by Elvire Gouze, an experienced scientist, serial entrepreneur and expert in skeletal disorders. She holds a PhD in Molecular Pharmacology and has over 20 years of experience in bone and cartilage diseases. Dr. Gouze has a proven track record of progressing the development of an innovative therapeutic pipeline, as seen with her first venture TherAchon, a biotech company focusing on achondroplasia, a rare bone disease, which was acquired at Phase 1 stage for $810m by Pfizer in 2019. Since 2016, Dr. Gouze was team leader at the institute Biologie Valrose in Nice where her team focused on the development of innovative biotherapies for skeletal dysplasia.
About Vida Ventures Vida Ventures is a next-generation life sciences investment firm founded by a group of scientists, physicians, entrepreneurs and investors passionate about building and funding breakthroughs in biomedicine. Together they form an independent, bold investment group bound together by a simple word – life. Its mission is to bring science to life and advance transformative biomedical innovations that have the potential to make a meaningful difference for patients. Vida has a bicoastal presence and currently has approximately $1 billion under management. For more information on Vida Ventures, please visit www.vidaventures.com, on LinkedIn or follow on Twitter @Vida_Ventures.
NEW YORK (AP) — Shares of Tesla soared Wednesday as investors bet that the electric vehicle maker and its CEO Elon Musk will benefit from Donald Trump’s return to the White House.
Tesla stands to make significant gains under a Trump administration with the threat of diminished subsidies for alternative energy and electric vehicles doing the most harm to smaller competitors. Trump’s plans for extensive tariffs on Chinese imports make it less likely that Chinese EVs will be sold in bulk in the U.S. anytime soon.
“Tesla has the scale and scope that is unmatched,” said Wedbush analyst Dan Ives, in a note to investors. “This dynamic could give Musk and Tesla a clear competitive advantage in a non-EV subsidy environment, coupled by likely higher China tariffs that would continue to push away cheaper Chinese EV players.”
Tesla shares jumped 14.8% Wednesday while shares of rival electric vehicle makers tumbled. Nio, based in Shanghai, fell 5.3%. Shares of electric truck maker Rivian dropped 8.3% and Lucid Group fell 5.3%.
Tesla dominates sales of electric vehicles in the U.S, with 48.9% in market share through the middle of 2024, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration.
Subsidies for clean energy are part of the Inflation Reduction Act, signed into law by President Joe Biden in 2022. It included tax credits for manufacturing, along with tax credits for consumers of electric vehicles.
Musk was one of Trump’s biggest donors, spending at least $119 million mobilizing Trump’s supporters to back the Republican nominee. He also pledged to give away $1 million a day to voters signing a petition for his political action committee.
In some ways, it has been a rocky year for Tesla, with sales and profit declining through the first half of the year. Profit did rise 17.3% in the third quarter.
The U.S. opened an investigation into the company’s “Full Self-Driving” system after reports of crashes in low-visibility conditions, including one that killed a pedestrian. The investigation covers roughly 2.4 million Teslas from the 2016 through 2024 model years.
And investors sent company shares tumbling last month after Tesla unveiled its long-awaited robotaxi at a Hollywood studio Thursday night, seeing not much progress at Tesla on autonomous vehicles while other companies have been making notable progress.
TORONTO – Canada’s main stock index was up more than 100 points in late-morning trading, helped by strength in base metal and utility stocks, while U.S. stock markets were mixed.
The S&P/TSX composite index was up 103.40 points at 24,542.48.
In New York, the Dow Jones industrial average was up 192.31 points at 42,932.73. The S&P 500 index was up 7.14 points at 5,822.40, while the Nasdaq composite was down 9.03 points at 18,306.56.
The Canadian dollar traded for 72.61 cents US compared with 72.44 cents US on Tuesday.
The November crude oil contract was down 71 cents at US$69.87 per barrel and the November natural gas contract was down eight cents at US$2.42 per mmBTU.
The December gold contract was up US$7.20 at US$2,686.10 an ounce and the December copper contract was up a penny at US$4.35 a pound.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 16, 2024.
TORONTO – Canada’s main stock index was up more than 200 points in late-morning trading, while U.S. stock markets were also headed higher.
The S&P/TSX composite index was up 205.86 points at 24,508.12.
In New York, the Dow Jones industrial average was up 336.62 points at 42,790.74. The S&P 500 index was up 34.19 points at 5,814.24, while the Nasdaq composite was up 60.27 points at 18.342.32.
The Canadian dollar traded for 72.61 cents US compared with 72.71 cents US on Thursday.
The November crude oil contract was down 15 cents at US$75.70 per barrel and the November natural gas contract was down two cents at US$2.65 per mmBTU.
The December gold contract was down US$29.60 at US$2,668.90 an ounce and the December copper contract was up four cents at US$4.47 a pound.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 11, 2024.
