Navion Neurosciences has completed a $10.8 million first closing of its seed financing to advance precision sodium-channel medicines for genetic epilepsy and chronic neuropathic pain. The financing was led by the Angelini Lumira Biosciences Fund, with participation from 3B Future Health Fund, UVA LVG Seed Fund, Virginia Innovation Partnership Corporation, VTC Innovation Fund and Navion management.
Navion will use the proceeds to advance its lead programs targeting genetic epilepsy and chronic neuropathic pain and continue developing its proprietary NaViGATion platform.
The AI-enabled discovery platform integrates chemistry, structural biology, human disease biology and ion-channel expertise to discover and optimize differentiated sodium-channel therapeutics.
Navion is focused on pathological neuronal hyperexcitability, which contributes to uncontrolled seizures and chronic pain. The company is developing medicines designed to modulate disease-relevant sodium-channel activity more precisely than traditional approaches that broadly affect the biological target.
The company’s management and scientific team brings experience across neuroscience, medicinal chemistry, ion-channel biology and drug development.
Members of Navion’s leadership previously built Cavion, a neurology-focused ion-channel company that was acquired by Jazz Pharmaceuticals in 2019.
Navion is headquartered at the Commonwealth Bio Accelerator in Charlottesville, Virginia.
KEY QUOTES:
“Human genetics and advances in sodium-channel pharmacology are creating an opportunity to design much more precise medicines for diseases driven by pathological neuronal firing. This financing enables us to advance differentiated programs built around compelling NaV biology while continuing to expand a discovery platform capable of generating multiple new medicines. We are building on our team’s deep knowledge and expertise in ion-channel science and drug development to develop better treatments for patients living with uncontrolled seizures and chronic pain.”
Andrew J. Krouse, Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Navion Neurosciences
“Navion combines compelling insights into disease biology with a focused approach to sodium-channel pharmacology and a team with demonstrated experience in the ion-channel field. Harnessing frontier-level AI tools has rapidly enabled the company to unlock some profound new insights for drug discovery in this field. We believe Navion is well positioned to develop important new medicines for patients with severe neurological diseases and to establish a broader precision sodium-channel discovery platform.”
Gerry Brunk, Managing Partner at Lumira Ventures
