Purespring Therapeutics, a gene therapy company focused on the treatment of kidney diseases, has raised £80 ($105) million in Series B financing.

The oversubscribed round was led by Sofinnova Partners, in collaboration with Gilde Healthcare, Forbion, British Patient Capital and founding investor Syncona.

Purespring is treating kidney disease models by directly targeting the podocyte, a specialised cell implicated in approximately 60% of renal diseases, through its adeno-associated viral (AAV) gene therapy platform.

The company currently has a pipeline of programmes in development. This includes its lead programme PS-002, in development for IgA Nephropathy (IgAN), and other complement mediated kidney diseases, a programme targeting nephrotic syndrome, and an undisclosed glomerular kidney disease programme.

Purespring’s technology allows working copies of genes to be delivered with high efficiency and specificity to podocytes, opening up a new and highly differentiated modality for disease modifying treatments of a broad range of kidney diseases.

Proceeds will be used to support Purespring’s pipeline including the initiation of a Phase I/II clinical trial for IgAN, a common, chronic kidney disease primarily affecting young adults. About one third of IgAN patients will go on to lose their kidney function within five years and require a kidney transplant or dialysis.

Julian Hanak, Purespring’s CEO, commented: “Nearly one tenth of the world’s population, around 840 million people, suffer from chronic kidney disease. For many of them, there are few options beyond dialysis and transplantation. Our novel treatment platform and deep understanding of kidney disease puts us in a position to stop, reverse and even cure kidney disease. The funds raised will allow us to bring our novel treatments to patients in the clinic.”

Critical company milestones

The financing follows critical scientific milestones for Purespring. Earlier this year, Purespring presented preclinical data at the 61st European Renal Association (ERA) Congress establishing the potential of AAV gene therapy to deliver transgenes to the podocyte to replace defective genes or to modulate protein production, underpinning the potential of AAV as an important novel modality to treat a broad range of kidney disease.

In 2023, a paper published in Science Translational Medicine demonstrated that Purespring had successfully used AAV gene therapy to transduce the podocyte in vivo for the first time – a major milestone in overcoming the hurdles which have previously limited development in this area.

Megan Thomas, Multimedia Editor, DDW