Seraphina Therapeutics discovers “groundbreaking” butter-based fatty acid, snaps up US$5.5m investment

18 May 2020 --- Along with the discovery of a “groundbreaking” essential fatty acid, health and wellness company Seraphina Therapeutics has closed a Series A fundraising round of US$5.5 million, led by Domain Associates. It plans to use these funds to advance the fatty acid C15:0 as a food fortifier that strengthens cells, enhances mitochondrial function and nutritionally guards against age-related breakdown. The company aims to make C15:0 available as a vegan-friendly dietary supplement starting around the end 2020 and as a food fortifier starting in early 2021.

C15:0, a trace odd-chain saturated fatty acid present in butter and some fish and plants, is pegged by Seraphina Therapeutics as the first “new potential” essential fatty acid discovered in nearly a century to actively foster cardiometabolic and liver fitness. The nutritional company ventures into the F&B space with a key focus on food fortification. Notably, reformulating products with a “Macronutrient Makeover,” is pegged by Innova Market Insights as a top trend expected to influence product development this year.

The compound has demonstrated its promotion of cellular integrity and function in human cell systems and in vivo models. This discovery was part of an extensive series of studies conducted over the past three years, led by Dr. Stephanie Venn-Watson, CEO and Co-Founder of Seraphina Therapeutics.

“The world is now understanding that not all fats are bad – some are good and some may in fact be essential to optimizing cardiometabolic health,” says Dr. Venn-Watson. “By effectively removing whole fat dairy from our diets, a 40-year experiment has been performed, including children who grew up in a fat-free environment. This discovery by Seraphina Therapeutics better enables the larger scientific community to fully understand how essential odd-chain saturated fatty acids may be to sustaining global health,” she adds.

Over the past few decades, whole fat dairy intake has decreased dramatically in an effort to decrease dietary saturated fat intake and associated heart disease. Yet, during this time, the prevalence of obesity, type 2 diabetes and metabolic liver diseases has only increased. Seraphina Therapeutics' studies on C15:0, paired with supporting studies, suggest that lowered population-wide dietary intake of whole fat dairy products may be causing C15:0 deficiencies.

“Our studies support that C15:0 may be a goldilocks dietary odd-chain saturated fatty acid providing broad health benefits expected of an essential fatty acid. We look forward to producing additional groundbreaking discoveries with the help of our recent fundraise,” says Dr. Eric Venn-Watson, Co-Founder and COO of Seraphina Therapeutics.

Edited by Benjamin Ferrer