Vedana Therapeutics has emerged with $46m in hand from a Series A financing round, which will fund the Seattle-based biotech’s development efforts as it progresses its pipeline of next-generation migraine prevention therapies.
Co-led by Canaan Partners and Westlake BioPartners, the capital raise will help Vedana push its array of subcutaneous migraine medicines further through the development pipeline. Vedana’s drugs extend the focus away from the traditional concentration on calcitonin gene-related peptide (CGRP)-targeting therapies commonly used for migraine prevention, such as Amgen and Novartis’ Aimovig (erenumab) and Teva Pharmaceuticals’ Ajovy (fremanezumab).
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While Anurag Agarwal, co-founder and CEO of Vedana, notes that the debut of first-generation CGRP therapies constituted a “major step forward” in the treatment of migraine, two-thirds of patients don’t experience optimal disease control from these drugs.
According to Agarwal, targeting biology beyond CGRP – in the case of Vedana, through the inhibition of pituitary adenylate cyclase-activating polypeptide (PACAP) – could represent the next step in treating migraine, as PACAP plays a key role in the pathophysiology of migraine, as per an article published in Brain.
With this thought in mind, Vedana is developing a long-acting anti-PACAP antibody designed to reduce the expression of the brain peptide, which plays a role in pain signalling during migraine attacks. Alongside these efforts, the biotech is also developing a bispecific antibody that targets both PACAP and CGRP – potentially offering additive efficacy for patients who don’t gain benefit from CGRP monotherapies.
Led by early-stage venture capitalist Agarwal, Vedana brings an experienced team to the mix, with the CMO, Ernesto Aycardi, having managed the pivotal and post-marketing studies for Ajovy, and the co-founder and CSO, Leon Garcia, being involved in the development of both CGRP and PACAP-targeting antibodies at Lundbeck-owned Alder BioPharmaceuticals.
The anti-PACAP mechanism: a previous headache for pharma
Vedana makes its debut as multiple companies engage in the race to market with their anti-PACAP therapies, with players like Lundbeck already in clinical trials, while Mentari Therapeutics and Slate Medicines are planning to kick off Phase I trials on their respective medicines.
All of these prospective players are seeking a slice of the growing migraine market, which GlobalData estimates will reach a value of $16.4bn across the seven major markets (7MM: US, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, UK, and Japan) in 2033, up from $9.2bn in 2023.
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However, some assets developed previously that target the brain peptide have either failed to show efficacy or had their development terminated, with pharma giant Eli Lilly axing the migraine programme for LY3451838, while Amgen’s anti-PACAP, AMG 301, offered no benefit in a Phase II trial.
Despite these losses, Lundbeck recently reported some mid-stage success for its intravenous PACAP-targeting therapy, bocunebart (Lu AG09222), after the drug met its primary endpoint during a Phase IIb trial back in February 2026.
