Innerva Pharmaceuticals (Innerva), a company developing a new drug for the treatment of ocular pain associated with dry eye and other ocular surface diseases, has completed a €2,300,000 round led by venture capital firm Inveready, member of CataloniaBio & HealthTech, through the Inveready Biotech III Fund.

Innerva, founded in Barcelona in 2022 by Patrick Tresserras, serial biotech entrepreneur and Professor Carlos Belmonte, Emeritus Professor of Human Physiology at the Institute of Neurosciences of San Juan de Alicante.   Innerva has immediately closed a round with funding from Inveready, the same entrepreneurs and business angels who also invested in AVX Pharma.  

The investment will go towards the development of an ophthalmic formulation with a novel mode of action for eye pain. The financing obtained, plus a joint strategy of seeking non-dilutive financing that seeks to align the interest of the partners, will allow the development of the new product candidate up to a clinical trial in humans. The strategy is very similar to the path already travelled by the partners in AVX Pharma between 2014 and 2019.  

 "We are excited to be able to invest again in a project led by one of the best entrepreneurs in the biotech sector in Europe, Patrick, and a prolific researcher and opinion leader, Carlos.  A few years ago, this was unthinkable and today it is a reality that demonstrates the maturity of the biotech sector in Spain.  With this investment we want to continue developing new first-in-class medicines for dry eye and eye pain patients and again create value for our investors," says Sara Secall, Partner at Inveready.

The transaction was advised by CataloniaBio & HealthTech members DWF-RCD, Hoffmann Eitle, together with Dinsmore.