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Cardiorentis announces €45m financing with HealthCare Royalty Partners

Cardiorentis AG, a privately held biopharmaceutical company, announced that it has entered into a €45m financing agreement with HealthCare Royalty Partners (HC Royalty), a US based healthcare investment firm.

The proceeds will be used to finance the Company’s registration program for the natriuretic peptide Ularitide in acute heart failure.

"This is a pivotal time for our Company. The team at HC Royalty understood the attractiveness of our program and our financing needs and then developed a structure that would give us a high degree of flexibility but also a sizeable amount of capital to complete our pivotal Phase III trial for Ularitide. We believe we have the financial resources in place to execute on our business strategy to introduce the first therapy with proven outcome benefits for patients with acute heart failure," stated Johannes Holzmeister, M.D., Chief Executive Officer and Chief Medical Officer, Cardiorentis.

The TRUE-AHF Phase III trial was initiated in August 2012. It is led by the international principal investigator Milton Packer, M.D., University Texas, Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas, Texas and includes over 200 centers across the U.S., Europe, Canada and Latin America. TRUE-AHF is an event driven trial, which may enroll up to 4,000 patients with acute heart failure. There are two co-primary endpoints. The first is a composite endpoint for acute heart failure which assesses a patient’s symptoms and persistent or worsening heart failure within the first 48 hours after treatment initiation. The second co-primary endpoint is cardiovascular mortality.

"We are impressed with the significant clinical progress that Cardiorentis has made with Ularitide. The TRUE-AHF trial is the first of its kind and if successful could produce a first line treatment for acute decompensated heart failure. We are pleased to be Cardiorentis’ capital partner of choice to bring this potential life-saving treatment to patients," commented Clarke B. Futch, Founding Managing Director at HC Royalty.

About Ularitide
Ularitide is a natriuretic peptide in Phase III development as an intravenous (IV) infusion treatment for acute heart failure (AHF) limited by United States law to investigational use only. Ularitide is the chemically synthesized form of urodilatin – a human, natriuretic peptide that is produced in the kidneys and induces excretion of sodium into the urine (natriuresis) and increased urine production (diuresis) to regulate fluid balance and sodium haemostasis. Ularitide induces natriuresis and diuresis by binding to specific natriuretic peptide receptors (NPR-A, NPR-B and other natriuretic peptide receptors), thereby increasing intracellular cyclic guanosine monophosphate (cGMP) helping to relax smooth muscle tissues, leading to vasodilation and increased blood flow.