Aspen Neuroscience’s cash reserves have been fertilized with a $115 million series C fundraise that will enrich the biotech’s ongoing trial of a regenerative cell therapy for Parkinson’s disease.
The raise will power Aspen’s phase 1/2 study of ANPD001, a therapy that turns patients’ skin cells into new neurons that are then transplanted into their brains to treat Parkinson’s.
“We're seeing improvements in both motor and non-motor symptoms, which is sort of the holy grail in Parkinson's,” Aspen CEO Damien McDevitt, Ph.D., told Fierce Biotech.
Aspen has dosed 14 patients in the phase 1/2 trial so far, McDevitt added, and the company is now looking ahead to a phase 3 study that he hopes will kick off next year. “We need to talk to the FDA about going directly into a phase three pivotal study,” he said, a conversation planned for the first half of 2026.
Aspen recently began dosing the third cohort in the ANPD001 trial, which uses the potential commercial formulation of the therapy. The FDA granted ANPD001 a fast track designation in 2023.
OrbiMed, Arch Venture Partners, Frazier Life Sciences and Revelation Partners all led the round, while a suite of investors both old and new also pitched in, Aspen announced in a Nov. 20 release. One of the new faces in Aspen’s garden of investors is Gilead Sciences' Kite Pharma, with Kite’s executive vice president Cindy Perettie joining the San Diego biotech’s board.
Gilead's “strategic investment in the company is really big,” McDevitt said. “They're a leader in autologous cell therapeutics,” which makes the company's expertise in manufacturing, clinical development and commercialization especially valuable.
The new cash will also go toward scaling up manufacturing and supporting the rest of Aspen’s pipeline, which is all preclinical, according to the release.
The California company initially raised a $70 million series A in 2020 and then followed up with a $147.5 million round two years later.
Aspen released six-month data from three patients in May, and the biotech hopes to reveal more data around March of next year, McDevitt told Fierce Biotech.
Preparations for a potential commercial launch of ANPD001 were seeded years ago; in 2022, Aspen debuted a new 14,000-square-foot facility for manufacturing its star cell therapy. The site should be able to support the upcoming phase 3 trial and potential product launch, McDevitt said.
In the long run, Aspen is keeping its options open, with more fundraising, a public offering or even a buyout all possible down the line, McDevitt said. The newfound presence of Kite in the company’s syndicate is notable for that last option, as Gilead has shown an M&A appetite for cell therapy with the August acquisition of Interius BioTherapeutics.