Vedana Therapeutics Launches With $46M for Migraine Drugs
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Vedana Therapeutics, a Seattle biotechnology company working on migraine prevention, has come out of stealth with $46 million in Series A financing. The round was co-led by Westlake BioPartners and Canaan Partners, with participation from Dawn Biopharma and Alexandria Venture Investments.
The company is built around an experienced team. Its executives, board, and advisors include people who discovered and developed multiple migraine therapies, among them approved calcitonin gene-related peptide antibodies, commonly referred to as CGRP, and the emerging pituitary adenylate cyclase-activating polypeptide drug class, known as PACAP.
Vedana’s lead program is a next-generation anti-PACAP antibody. Its second program goes after both PACAP and CGRP at once. Targeting PACAP on its own gives the company an approach that goes beyond currently approved drugs, while the bispecific antibody aimed at both pathways could deliver added benefit for patients who do not find relief from single-target therapies.
The financing will go toward advancing the company’s portfolio of internally discovered antibodies. These are designed to be delivered subcutaneously and to act on clinically validated pathways for migraine prevention, with the company describing them as potentially best-in-class.
Migraine prevention has seen real progress in recent years, but a meaningful share of patients still do not respond well to existing options. By working on both a novel single-target therapy and a dual-target one, Vedana is positioning itself to address that gap. With $46 million in hand and a team that has been through the drug development process before, the company is entering the field with a clear scientific focus from its base in the Pacific Northwest.