Versantis has raised CHF 16 million from Swisscanto Invest, Esperante Ventures, Verve Ventures, Redalpine, HealthEquity, ZKB Start-up Finance and private investors.  Verve Ventures contributed CHF 1.2 million to this round. 

Founded by leading scientists from ETH Zurich and industry experts, Versantis is pursuing innovative therapies for the acute care of serious liver conditions based on its proprietary liposomes-based detoxification platform technology. Its lead candidate, VS-01, uses a disruptive route to enhance the clearance of ammonia and other toxins from the body.

Earlier in the year, Versantis started a first-in-human clinical trial with VS-01, a multi-organ supporting therapy for liver cirrhosis. The proceeds from this new financing will be mainly used to assess the safety of VS-01 after multiple doses and establish its clinical proof of concept in the decompensated liver cirrhosis indication as well as in the rare Acute-on-Chronic Liver Failure (ACLF) patient population.

“The outlook for the clinical trial of VS-01 is very promising, since it is composed of known substances that are already used in many other medical drugs”, says Romeo Bütler, Verve Ventures’ Investment Manager responsible for the case.

Interview with Prof. Jonel Trebicka who is supervising the clinical trial

Interview with Peter Nicklin, Versantis’ chairman of the board