Basking Biosciences, Inc., a privately-held biopharmaceutical company developing a next generation treatment for acute ischemic stroke (AIS), announced an initial closing of a $5.4M Seed Series financing. The investor syndicate includes Rev1 Ventures, Broadview Ventures and Viva BioInnovator. Concurrent with the financing, Ryan Helon of Rev1, Thomas Needham of Broadview and Dr. Dan Meyers have joined Basking’s Board of Directors.
Basking is developing the first reversible thrombolytic therapy for acute ischemic stroke (AIS). The Company’s development candidate, DTRI-031, is an RNA aptamer that inhibits von Willebrand Factor (vWF). Basking is co-developing a matched oligonucleotide reversal agent, DTRI-025, for as-needed, rapid reversal of DTRI-031. Basking’s paired therapy has the potential to significantly expand the population of patients that receives acute thrombolytic therapy by extending the treatment window to 24 hours post stroke onset and aligns well with the urgent need in medicine for precision-based therapeutics in cardiovascular disease. The program is expected to enter into human clinical trials in Q2 2021.