Through Versanis, Novartis vets raise $70M to pivot pharma’s muscle therapy to fat loss

With an eye toward endpoints that distinguish fat and muscle loss, Versanis aims to turn a Novartis mAb with underwhelming myositis data into an at-home obesity therapy.

On Tuesday, Versanis Bio Inc. announced a $70 million series A round co-led by Atlas Venture and Medicxi Ventures, with participation from seed investor Aditum Bio. That firm, which came out of stealth in November, was co-founded by former Novartis AG (NYSE:NVS; SIX:NOVN) CEO Joe Jimenez and Novartis Institutes for BioMedical Research (NIBR) head Mark Fishman to take on large underserved indications all but abandoned by pharma...