Nordic Life Science 1
WOMEN´S HEALTH In July Sunstone Life Science Vent
ures made a EUR 5 million investment into the Finnish women’s health company Forendo Pharma to finance clinical studies in endometriosis. has announced its first investment from its Life Science Ventures Fund IV into Forendo Pharma, a Finnish clinical stage drug development company focusing on novel treatments in women’s health. The investment is designated for financing the continuation of Forendo Pharma’s positive Phase Ia study in post-menopausal women into Phase Ib in pre-meno-pausal women, and later Phase II for the treatment of endometriosis. Claus Andersson, Sunstone General Partner who will join Forendo’s Board of Directors In March 2019, Forendo Pharma successfully completed a Phase Ia study of its lead program FOR-6219, a novel oral formulation of a tissue-specific treatment for endometriosis. FOR-6219 was found to be safe and well tolerated. Sunstone will be joining a syndicate of reputable active international investors, including Novo Seeds, Novartis Venture Fund, Vesalius Biocapital III and M Ventures (Merck). “Sunstone sees women’s health as an area with immense need of investments and with trending popularity. Endometriosis is a perfect example as approximately 8% of all pre-menopausal women are affected with moderate to severe pain, infertility, and impaired quality of life as a consequence. We are very pleased to make this first investment under our new Fund IV, which earlier this year had its first closing at €80 million, with a target of €150 million at final closing,” says Claus Andersson, Sunstone General Partner, who will join Forendo Pharma’s Board of Directors. NLS PHOTO THOMAS ROENN