A Kirkland, Wash.-based biotech company led by former Athira Pharma CEO Leen Kawas has raised $35 million in a Series A round led by Propel Bio Partners, the Los Angeles investment firm where Kawas is a co-founder and managing general partner.
EIT Pharma said Monday that the oversubscribed round also drew participation from Good Ventures, Arrowtown and others. The company said the money will support FDA review of lonafarnib, an oral treatment candidate for chronic hepatitis D, along with manufacturing and commercial preparations, subject to regulatory approval.
The Food and Drug Administration accepted the company’s New Drug Application for review on Aug. 11.
Lonafarnib came to EIT Pharma through the 2024 bankruptcy of Eiger BioPharmaceuticals, in a court-supervised sale that closed that September. The same sale included peginterferon lambda, which EIT Pharma is developing for severe respiratory infections.
Kawas, EIT Pharma’s CEO, said in a news release Monday that the oversubscribed round validates the company’s founding belief that “advancing important medicines is about recognizing unrealized potential.”
Chronic hepatitis D is a serious liver disease that affects people who are already infected with hepatitis B. The FDA approved the first U.S. treatment for chronic hepatitis D in May: Gilead’s injectable Hepcludex, or bulevirtide-gmod. EIT Pharma is positioning lonafarnib as a potential oral alternative, if approved.
Kawas resigned as CEO of Athira Pharma in 2021 after a board investigation found she had altered images in research she co-authored as a graduate student. She said at the time that the changes were enhancements that did not alter the underlying data.
Athira has since changed its name to LeonaBio and shifted its focus from Alzheimer’s disease to breast cancer.