Catalio Capital, along with Savoir Capital, led a $8.25 million funding round for San Francisco-based Spiral Therapeutics, a clinical-stage startup developing therapies for inner ear disorders impacting an estimated 40 million Americans.
Humboldt Fund and other family office investors invested alongside the two existing investors. So far, Spiral, led by founder-CEO Hugo Peris, has raised $18.5 million from investors, including Baltimore-based Camden Partners.
“Hearing loss and balance disorders are among the largest unmet needs in medicine. 430 million worldwide suffer from disabling hearing loss, while there are no FDA-approved drug treatments available,” said Dr. Charles Limb, Spiral’s chief medical officer, and professor and chief of otology and Neurotology at University of California in San Francisco.
The firm will use the new proceeds to continue development of its lead candidate, SPT-2101, to treat Ménière’s disease, which potentially leads to episodes of vertigo, tinnitus and hearing loss.
Catalio’s New Tie-up
Days before the Spiral deal, Catalio announced a partnership with New York-based HealthCor Management, a two-decade-old healthcare hedge fund. The two firms plan to craft a public equities hedge fund investment strategy aimed at tapping life science investment opportunities globally.
Catalio, founded by Greek whizkid George Petrocheilos and Johns Hopkins biomedical engineer Dr. R. Jacob Volgelstein, boasts of partnerships with 36 world-renowned scientists who have each started several successful companies. As many as 30 Nobel Prize winners “own a piece of Catalio,” according to a report in The Hellenic Initiative. Catalio’s principals include Jonathan Blankfein, a former Goldman Sachs banker.
The high-profile venture firm focused on life sciences has so far raised $566 million from three funds. Its most recent fund came last October, when it closed a new $85 million fund, Catalio Credit Opportunities Fund I. Last May, its Catalio Nexus Fund III closed on $381 million.
Catalio has made 45 portfolio investments and exited five. Its recent investments include Perceive Biotherapeutics, Metagenomi, Ensoma, Medical Informatics, Haystack Oncology, Odyssey Therapeutics, Fractyl Health and Cartography Biosciences. Catalio has offices in New York, Baltimore and London.
Spiral’s Phase 2 Trials
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SPT-2101, Spiral’s lead candidate, is a sustained-release steroid formulation. It is undergoing Phase 2 clinical trials in Australia. The randomized, placebo-controlled trial, which began this month, will investigate SPT-2101’s safety and efficacy as a single administration. Up to 30 subjects with Meniere’s disease are to be enrolled across four clinical centers in Australia.
“The safety profile and clinical data from the initial SPT-2101 trial shows great promise for the unmet needs of people suffering from Ménière’s disease,” said Dr. Jafri Kuthubutheen, principal investigator in SPT-2101’s Phase 2 trial. Kuthubutheen, who is a clinical associate professor in the Division of Surgery, Medical School at the University of Western Australia, called Ménière’s disease a “debilitating inner ear disorder usually diagnosed in patients between 40 to 60 years of age.”
Spiral CEO Hugo Peris has a masters degree in health economics and pharmaco-economics from Spain’s Universitat Pompeu Fabra. Prior to starting Spiral, He spent seven years in Shanghai, working for Luqa Pharmaceuticals.
