ObsEva SA announces CHF 32 Million funding

Founded in November 2012, ObsEva SA is a Swiss-based, speciality biopharmaceutical company dedicated to the development of innovative drugs for women’s reproductive medicine. ObsEva’s main focus is on therapies for preterm labor. Under the licensing agreement Merck Serono will grant ObsEva worldwide development and commercialization rights to certain Merck Serono compounds in the field of preterm labor. The funding will allow ObsEva to undertake the development of these compounds.

As part of the deal, MS Ventures, the corporate venture capital fund of Merck Serono has taken a minority equity stake in the company. Jasper Bos, PhD, will represent MS Ventures at ObsEva’s board of directors. Rafaèle Tordjman MD, PhD, Managing Partner at Sofinnova Partners, Jim Healy MD, PhD, General Partner at Sofinnova Ventures, and Kim Dueholm, PhD, Partner at Novo A/S will serve on the board along with Ernest Loumaye MD, PhD, Co-Founder of ObsEva, and Chief Executive Officer (CEO). Highly experienced pharmaceutical industry executives will also join the board of directors.

« I am grateful to Merck Serono for the trust in ObsEva for developing the licensed assets. Preterm labor is a condition for which only products with limited efficacy or limiting safety are available. The cost of preterm births to the society is estimated at around 27 billion dollars every year in the USA » said Ernest Loumaye MD, PhD, CEO of ObsEva SA. « I am also very pleased to have the opportunity to work again with Sofinnova Partners and Sofinnova Ventures as well as to welcome Novo A/S, all three highly qualified investors ».

About ObsEva
ObsEva was founded in November 2012, by Ernest Loumaye MD, PhD and André Chollet PhD. Ernest Loumaye is a specialist in female reproductive medicine with 20 years of experience in the biopharmaceutical industry. Ernest Loumaye was previously Co-Founder and CEO of PregLem SA, a successful biopharmaceutical company which was acquired by Gedeon Richter in 2010.
André Chollet is specialist in medicinal and pharmaceutical chemistry with more than 30 years of experience in diverse positions in the biopharmaceutical industry, including in Biogen, GSK and Merck Serono. André Chollet was responsible for the preterm labor program at Serono before the acquisition of the company by Merck KGaA.
ObsEva’s founding assets are innovative products at early stages of clinical development addressing preterm labor.