LNC Closes Successfully its Second Fundraising

Les Laboratoires Nutrition & Cardiometabolisme has announced the successful completion of their second funding round totaling € 3.5 m.

This round was led by Seventure Partners accompanied by a group of investors from South-Western France (IRDI, GSO Capital, Aqui-Invest) and LNC’s historical shareholder EPI.

LNC designs and develops Medical Nutrition products, tailored to meet the specific needs of patients suffering from metabolic diseases (diabetes, cardiovascular disease).

"Coming from the pharmaceutical industry, LNC managers are convinced that patients with these chronic condition benefit from a comprehensive health care offering. This offer comprises the assembly of drugs, disease-specific nutrition products and services. What are the objectives of such a global health care offer? The improvement of the medico-economic efficiency that benefits both patients/customers and payers (public and private health insurance...). LNC’s team excels at the design and development of these patented medical nutrition products, with efficacy proven by international, multicenter, placebo-controlled clinical trials. Within 2 years, LNC plans to offer its products to the pharmaceutical industry for acquisition or licensing", comments Claude Vincent, co-founder and President of LNC.

Four patented and proprietary products are currently in clinical development. These products target two strategic markets chosen by LNC, namely: reducing cardiometabolic risk in patients with pre-diabetes syndrome (insulin resistance, adipocyte dysfunction and metabolic disorders leading to cardiovascular disease) and perioperative nutrition for obese patients undergoing Bariatric surgery (insertion of a gastric band, sleeve, etc.).

LNC, supported by its partners, will also consider investment opportunities in companies or product portfolios, aimed at strengthening its market position.

In 2010, LNC carried out an initial fundraising of € 1.5 million to initiate clinical studies on its products. Encouraging results convinced LNC to seek further financing to fund a second set of clinical studies.

"Seventure Partners is the European leader in investments in healthcare-nutrition. We are delighted to welcome them as shareholders and look forward to benefiting from their deep knowledge of the pharma-nutrition markets and their vision of Nutrition for Health. Isabelle de Crémoux, Robert Schier and their team bring wide experience regarding strategic development, scale up of operations and business development within the pharmaceutical industry." added Claude Vincent.

Vincent continued, "With this fundraising, we can complete in the next 24 months the clinical development of our products within our two strategic markets. Our aim is to work with the world's best teams in each area. Clinical studies will be conducted both in Europe and North America."

This fundraising will also allow LNC to consolidate its position in Aquitaine.

"Be it through equity investment via Aqui-Invest or through various other mechanisms of support and funding, our regional contacts, Oséo Aquitaine, Regional Council of Aquitaine and the Bordeaux-Unitec Technopole have provided critical, fast and efficient support to LNC. We would also like to acknowledge the contribution of the Competitiveness & Financing Department of the new agency Aquitaine Développement Innovation, whose expertise and responsiveness helped finalize the second round in less than 6 months including facilitating the presence of IRDI and GSO Capital" said Jean-Luc Treillou, Deputy Managing Director of LNC.