EQT Life Sciences Backs Exciva with €51 Million Financing to Address Unmet Needs in Alzheimer’s Care

EQT Life Sciences Backs Exciva with €51 Million Financing to Address Unmet Needs in Alzheimer’s Care

(IN BRIEF) EQT Life Sciences has co-led a €51 million Series B financing in Exciva to support a Phase 2 clinical trial of Deraphan, a novel therapy for agitation associated with Alzheimer’s disease. The round, led through the LSP Dementia Fund alongside Gimv and supported by a broad group of new and existing investors, will fund trials across Europe, the US, and Canada. The investment highlights strong confidence in Exciva’s scientific approach and addresses a major unmet need in the treatment of behavioral symptoms affecting Alzheimer’s patients.

(PRESS RELEASE) SYDNEY, 20-Jan-2026 — /EuropaWire/ — EQT Life Sciences has co-led a €51 million Series B financing round in Exciva, a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company focused on developing novel therapies for behavioral symptoms associated with Alzheimer’s disease. The investment was led through EQT Life Sciences’ LSP Dementia Fund alongside Gimv, with participation from Fountain Healthcare Partners, LifeArc, Carma Fund, Modi Ventures, and returning investors Andera Partners and LBBW.

The financing will primarily support Exciva’s Phase 2 clinical trial of its lead candidate, Deraphan, which is being developed to treat agitation associated with Alzheimer’s disease. The upcoming trial will be conducted across Europe, the United States, and Canada, marking a key step forward in addressing a major unmet medical need in Alzheimer’s care.

Neuropsychiatric symptoms, including agitation and other behavioral disturbances, affect up to 90 percent of patients with severe Alzheimer’s disease and are a major driver of caregiver burden, healthcare utilization, and reduced quality of life. Despite the scale and impact of these symptoms, treatment options remain limited, and innovation in this area has not kept pace with the growing prevalence of the disease in an aging global population.

Deraphan is a combination therapy built on two clinically validated compounds, including one new chemical entity. It has demonstrated encouraging safety and tolerability in Phase 1 studies and is designed to offer a differentiated efficacy and safety profile compared with existing treatment options, many of which are constrained by safety warnings, side effects, or inconsistent clinical outcomes.

The Series B investment reinforces EQT Life Sciences’ commitment to advancing high-impact neuroscience and dementia therapeutics. Following the financing, EQT Life Sciences will be represented on Exciva’s Board by Philip Scheltens as Director, with Juliette Lee joining as Board Observer, further supporting the company as it advances its clinical development strategy.

Through this financing, Exciva aims to accelerate the development of a potential new treatment option for agitation in Alzheimer’s disease, a condition with limited therapeutic solutions and significant impact on patients, caregivers, and healthcare systems worldwide.

Contact
EQT Press Office, press@eqtpartners.com

About EQT Life Sciences

EQT Life Sciences was formed in 2022 following an integration of LSP, a leading European life sciences and healthcare venture capital firm, into the EQT platform. As LSP, the firm raised over EUR 3.0 billion (USD 3.5 billion) and supported the growth of more than 150 companies since it started to invest over 30 years ago. With a dedicated team of highly experienced investment professionals, coming from backgrounds in medicine, science, business, and finance, EQT Life Sciences backs the smartest inventors who have ideas that could truly make a difference for patients. The LSP Dementia Fund (USD 297 million) started in 2020 and has a dedicated team of neurologists and neuroscientists focused on investing in therapeutics targeting neurodegenerative diseases.

For more information, go to https://eqtgroup.com/private-capital/life-sciences/

About Exciva

Exciva is a biopharmaceutical company, founded in 2016 by Drs Anton Bespalov, Hans Moebius and Rao Vepachedu to address neuropsychiatric symptoms in Alzheimer’s disease dementia and other brain disorders. Exciva uses its powerful discovery potential, which has led to the combination of two CNS-active compounds to treat agitation in patients living with Alzheimer’s disease dementia. Exciva is based in Heidelberg, Germany. www.exciva.com