Gunderson Dettmer represented PepGen, a therapeutics company targeting severe neuromuscular diseases, in its $45 million Series A financing led by RA Capital Management. The company will use the new funding to advance into the clinic their next-generation cell-penetrating peptides conjugated to phosphorodiamidate morpholino oligomers (PPMOs) that are designed to correct genetic defects in diseases with high unmet medical need.

In the announcement of the transaction co-founder and CEO of PepGen Caroline Godfrey said, “Patients born with Duchenne muscular dystrophy lack dystrophin, a critical protein that confers structural integrity on muscle. PepGen is developing unique, proprietary cell-penetrating peptides that we expect will improve upon the efficacy of existing exon-skipping approaches to restore dystrophin expression in DMD patients.”

The Gunderson deal team was led by Richard Hesp and included Christopher Warren and Ademisola Ijidakinro.