NovaGo: $30 million for an NG004 trial in spinal cord injury recovery

NovaGo has raised $30 million for a 120-patient study of NG004 in acute spinal cord injury

On 2 September, Swiss biotechnology company NovaGo Therapeutics announced the closing of a financing round worth 24 million Swiss francs, or $30 million. The funds will support a study of the antibody NG004 in 120 people with acute spinal cord injury in Germany, Spain, and Switzerland. Participants are to be randomly assigned to groups, with treatment allocation concealed from both participants and investigators.

Acute spinal cord injury damages the neural pathways that carry commands from the brain to the body. These fibers have little capacity to regrow in the central nervous system, which makes it difficult to restore movement and sensation.

NovaGo developed NG004 to target one molecular barrier to this recovery. Nogo-A is a protein that the company describes as inhibiting both the regrowth of nerve fibers and the reorganization of neural connections after injury. NG004 is an antibody designed to block Nogo-A. The developers expect this blockade to allow surviving pathways to form new connections.

The international clinical trial registry ClinicalTrials.gov, whose record was last updated in February 2025, describes the first phase of NG004 testing: the first administration of the drug to people with acute incomplete cervical spinal cord injury. The protocol for this phase uses sequential dose escalation to assess safety, tolerability, and pharmacokinetics, meaning how the antibody behaves in the body.

With this funding, NovaGo plans to move from early testing of the dosing regimen to a 120-patient study of NG004.