DURHAM – IMMvention Therapeutix, which nearly won a pitch competition from LaunchBio this summer, has won a bigger deal with investors.

Four backers are putting just over $3.9 million into the startup that is focusing on therapies to combat inflammation, according to an SEC filing.

The mix of equity and options fell just short of the $4.4 million the company sought.

IMMvention

The 4-year-old Durham company was one of three finalists in LaunchBio’s Big Pitch competition for the most promising life science or biotech startup in the United States.

IMMvention had won the competition among Durham-area startups earlier in the summer, beating out the likes of CasTag Biosciences, PhosphoGam, Praetego, and TreeCo to advance to the national round.

Its technology targets auto-inflammatory diseases for which there are huge unmet needs, including rheumatoid arthritis, osteoarthritis, gout and Alzheimer’s disease. Its illness-modifying therapies inhibit inflammation caused by inflammasomes that activate inflammatory responses. The company uses its platform to discover small-molecule inhibitors of multiple inflammatory receptors.

IMMvention initially has focused on rare auto-inflammatory illnesses like Still’s disease – which affects people with systemic arthritis – and COVID-19-associated hyper-inflammation that can lead to acute respiratory distress syndrome. Recent data have shown that COVID-19 cytokine storm – or hyperactive immune response – is similar to other types of hyper-inflammatory diseases the company was already exploring.

The North Carolina Biotechnology Center has provided loans to support the company’s development. IMMvention also has received NIH grants and contracts and has collaborated with pharmaceutical companies on various projects.

IMMvention was founded in 2017 by scientists from the School of Medicine and the Eshelman School of Pharmacy at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill who specialized in immunology and innate immunity.

(The NC Biotech Center contributed to this story.)