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Versant Ventures launches Jecure Therapeutics

Versant Ventures announced the launch of Jecure Therapeutics, a biotechnology company focused on developing disease-modifying therapies for non-alcoholic steatohepatitis and fibrosis, according to a press release.

Versant was the sole investor in the $20 million series A commitment. The company’s founding team includes Jeffrey Stafford, PhD, as CEO and James Veal, PhD, as CSO. The company’s Scientific Advisory Board includes Scott Friedman, MD, Gregory Gores, MD, Nizar Zein, MD, and Ariel Feldstein, MD.

“The series A backing of Jecure renews a successful partnership with Versant and provides us the opportunity to build another transformational company in a field that is starving for innovation,” Stafford said in the release. “We continue to have ongoing discussions with strategic and financial partners while we independently build a pipeline of drug candidates based on the discoveries from the [University of California, San Diego] NASH platform.”
Jecure Therapeutics will initially focus its research platform — developed by Feldstein and the University of California, San Diego team — to target the inflammasome, a multi-protein complex known to play a key role in driving liver inflammation and fibrosis. The company expects to name the first of several development candidates by late 2017.

Reference: www.versantventures.com; www.jecuretx.com