Vincere lands $2.7M NIH grant to push kidney drug toward human trials
What's the deal? Vincere BiosciencesDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom → has won a $2.7 million grant from the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK)Dealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom →, part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH)Dealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom →. The Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase II award, spread over two years, will fund IND-enabling studies of a USP30 inhibitor to treat acute kidney injury (AKI).
What's the endgame? Vincere is developing small molecules that target mitochondrial dysfunction and impaired mitophagy — key drivers of kidney injury. Its drug inhibits USP30, an enzyme that acts as a brake on the body's clearing of damaged mitochondria, aiming to speed recovery of injured kidney tissue.
The money covers a full IND-enabling program: genotoxicity work, 28-day Good Laboratory Practice toxicology studies, and cardiovascular, respiratory, and central nervous system safety pharmacology. Success would support an Investigational New Drug (IND) application and first-in-human trials.
Why now? AKI is a sudden loss of kidney function that follows ischemia, major surgery, or exposure to nephrotoxic drugs, affecting over 13 million people worldwide each year. Despite that burden and its link to chronic kidney disease, treatment remains largely supportive.
"The involvement of mitochondria in kidney injury is newly emerging and I'm grateful to the NIH for supporting this translational step that will prepare us to evaluate efficacy that could prevent over a million deaths each year from untreated AKI," said Spring Behrouz, co-founder and chief executive officer of Vincere.
The grant expands Vincere's USP30 platform beyond its original focus. The company is separately advancing a CNS-penetrant USP30 inhibitor for Parkinson's disease, backed by a $5 million award from The Michael J. Fox FoundationDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom →.
The signal: The award sits in the top quartile among comparable grants, a notable size for an early-stage biotech. It reflects growing interest in mitochondrial biology as a route to treating diseases across very different organs — from the brain to the kidney — using a single mechanistic platform.
Image credit: Vincere Biosciences
