Tribune Therapeutics Launches to Develop Novel Medicines Targeting a Wide Range of Fibrotic Diseases

Tribune Therapeutics Launches to Develop Novel Medicines Targeting a Wide Range of Fibrotic Diseases

• Company co-created and funded by HealthCap and Novo Holdings
• Breakthrough asset in-licensed from Norway’s foremost tech transfer office, Inven2
• Jonas Hansson, Partner, HealthCap will assume the role of Executive Chairman as Georg Vo Beiske, Junior Venture Partner, HealthCap is appointed Chief Executive Officer

Oslo, Norway, 2 June 2021 – Tribune Therapeutics (“Tribune”), a company founded to exploit a novel, pan-antifibrotic mechanism across a wide range of indications, announces its launch with a seed financing led by HealthCap and Novo Holdings. This follows a period of company creation, with close involvement by HealthCap and Novo Seeds, the early-stage investment and company creation team of Novo Holdings.

Founded in 2020 and recently having in-licensed an asset from Inven2, one of the largest technology transfer offices in the Nordic region, Tribune emerges from stealth mode as a preclinical biopharmaceutical company building a promising pipeline of novel medicines to treat patients with a wide range of fibrotic diseases.

Based on research from Håvard Attramadal’s lab at Oslo University Hospital, Tribune is developing a novel drug with a pan-antifibrotic mechanism of action targeting several fibrotic indications including diseases affecting the kidney, lung and liver.

HealthCap and Novo Seeds have worked closely with Inven2 and the scientific founders to develop a commercially attractive business plan to maximise the potential of the company’s breakthrough technology.

Jonas Hansson, Partner with HealthCap and Executive Chairman of Tribune, said: “Tribune emerges as the result of years of academic research and is now setting out to develop novel pharmaceuticals to treat life-threatening fibrotic diseases. Combining a strong scientific foundation and a large unmet medical need with a Nordic footprint is a great match with Novo Seeds and HealthCap. Together, we are excited to support this important work.”

João Ribas, Senior Associate at Novo Seeds, added: “As part of our mission to support entrepreneurs developing innovative solutions to improve treatment options for patients, we are delighted to be working with HealthCap to fund and fully support Tribune Therapeutics. This financing not only exemplifies Novo Seeds’ commitment as a key biotech company builder in the Nordic region, but also demonstrates our ability to synergistically collaborate with academic experts and like-minded investors to bring the latest scientific breakthroughs into promising, disruptive companies.”

Ole Kristian Hjelstuen, Chief Executive Officer of Inven2, stated: “Inven2´s core mandate is to commercialise inventions on behalf of the strong academic milieus we represent. We are very proud to see that cutting-edge academic research from Håvard Attramadal ´s lab has laid the foundation for Tribune Therapeutics. The financial support, expertise, and commitment from both Novo Holdings and HealthCap, two of the leading life science financial institutions in Europe, gives the company fair chances to succeed in bringing new treatments to patients. We look forward to following the route from the lab to patients with high unmet medical needs.”

Georg Vo Beiske, Junior Venture Partner at HealthCap and incoming Chief Executive Officer of Tribune, stated: “There is a great need for novel treatment options for patients suffering from fibrotic diseases. Tribune Therapeutics is built on strong science and has the potential to develop life-changing therapies for these patients. With the support of Novo Seeds and HealthCap we are eager to bring the science into pharmaceutical development.”

As a result of the financing, João Ribas, Senior Associate and Jørgen Søberg Petersen, Partner at Novo Seeds; Elias Papatheodorou, CEO Genkyotex; and Jacob Gunterberg, Partner at HealthCap will join the Board of Directors which will be led by Jonas Hansson, Partnerat HealthCap and Tribune’s Executive Chairman.

Georg Vo Beiske, Junior Venture Partner at HealthCap, has been appointed Chief Executive Officer and Ole Jørgen Kaasbøll, MD, PhD at Oslo University Hospital, will assume the role of Chief Scientific Officer.

Fibrosis is a pathogenic process that results in deposition of scar tissue and it typically occurs when tissues are subjected to chronic inflammation or insults too large for the body to spontaneously recover from. Fibrosis can occur in many tissues within the body and result in disease in multiple organs including in the heart, lungs, liver and kidneys. As a whole, human fibrotic diseases affect far more people than estimated and constitute a major health problem worldwide due to the current absence of safe and effective treatments.