NLC Health Ventures, Netherlands-based early-stage healthtech venture investor and operator, has sold its shareholding in Serda Therapeutics in a transaction paid fully in cash. Terms were not disclosed.
With its joint venture partner taking a majority position, Serda gains the focused backing of a global medical technology group as it advances the technology. Founded in 2020, Serda – a joint venture between Smith & Nephew and NLC – is a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company developing a prescription product for fast and effective wound debridement. Its lead product, SN514, uses a proprietary proteolytic enzyme to selectively remove necrotic tissue and eschar from burn wounds and chronic ulcers.
“As we enter this next phase, we are committed to advance SN514 through later-stage clinical development,” said Gabor Heltovics, CEO, Serda Therapeutics.
In 2024, Serda raised €2m in a funding round led by NLC’s Health Impact Fund.
“Serda reflects what our model is built to do: take an early-stage invention and develop it into a clinical-stage company addressing a real patient need,” said Ian Metcalfe, partner, NLC Health Ventures
This was the second exit for NLC Health Ventures within a three-week period.
In June, it sold its shareholding in US-headquartered Sanmirna, a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company bringing curative therapies to patients with Acute Myeloid Leukemia (AML), to London-listed Thalia Therapeutics.
Thalia Therapeutics is acquiring the entire issued share capital of Sanmirna for an initial consideration of £3.75m (US$5m) in equity, with additional deferred milestone payments in equity and cash of up to £13m contingent on clinical, regulatory, and commercial milestones being met. NLC Health Ventures, the largest shareholder in Sanmirna, will receive, as part of the transaction, direct equity ownership in a listed biotech company.
By joining Thalia, Sanmirna expects to gain the platform, resources and listed infrastructure to accelerate its lead asset, MiRisten, clinical programme with Phase I results expected in the first half of 2027. MiRisten, a microRNA therapeutic candidate that selectively inhibits miRNA-126 – a gene believed to play a critical oncogenic role in (AML).
NLC founded Sanmirna to bring a promising scientific discovery from City of Hope, Los Angeles, into the clinic.
NLC has over 70 ventures in Europe and the US, with a portfolio spanning various health technologies from biotechnology, to cardiovascular solutions and orthopaedics inventions.
