Scholar Rock announces $47 million Series C financing to advance innovative pipeline

SRK-015 to move into clinical development for Spinal Muscular Atrophy (SMA) in first half of 2018; development in additional neuromuscular disorders to follow.

“We are delighted by the strong support and recognition we received in this Series C financing and the expansion of our group of world-class life sciences investors, which now includes Invus and Redmile,” said Nagesh Mahanthappa, PhD, President and Chief Executive Officer of Scholar Rock. “We expect 2018 to be a critical year of growth for Scholar Rock, as we advance the first clinical candidate from our groundbreaking platform into the clinic to address an important unmet need in SMA and continue to build out our pipeline.”

SRK-015 exemplifies Scholar Rock’s proprietary approach to selectively target growth factors in the disease microenvironment through modulating the supracellular activation of latent growth factors. SRK-015 is a highly selective inhibitor of the supracellular activation of myostatin, a member of the TGF-beta superfamily of growth factors. This novel mechanism of action provides for highly specific and localized effects, seeking to overcome the challenges that have limited the traditional approach of inhibiting growth factors systemically. Scholar Rock is the first company to exploit this mechanism to discover and develop a pipeline of potential best-in-class therapeutic candidates.

The financing was led by new investor Invus, with the participation of new investor Redmile Group. All of the existing investors in Scholar Rock also participated in this financing round, including Polaris Partners, Timothy Springer, ARCH Venture Partners, EcoR1 Capital, The Kraft Group, Fidelity Management and Research Company, and Cormorant Asset Management.