Neuropathic pain, the burning and stabbing pain of damaged nerves, is badly served by today's drugs. The standard treatments dull the signal, often with heavy side effects, and opioids bring their own risks. Hoba Therapeutics, a Copenhagen company set up in 2016 by Novo Holdings and Denmark's state investment fund, is developing something different: a natural human protein that, the company says, repaired nerves in animal models rather than masking the pain.
In 2021 the European Innovation Council granted €2,325,312.50 to take that protein, HB-086, and a sister molecule for hearing loss into clinical development and to "obtain clinical proof of principle in humans". The project ended on 31 May 2025. The drug databases that track the pipeline still list HB-086 as preclinical.
Company file
- Legal entity
- Hoba Therapeutics ApS, CVR 38231170
- Founded
- November 2016 by Novo Holdings and EIFO
- Headquarters
- Copenhagen, Denmark
- Chief executive
- Torsten M. Madsen
- Candidates
- HB-086 (recombinant human meteorin, nerve pain); HB-097 (hearing loss)
- Investors
- Indaco, Medical Incubator Japan, Novo Holdings, Eir Ventures, EIFO, EIC Fund
- EIC project
- Sense21, 1 Jun 2022 to 31 May 2025, closed
- Funding type (table)
- Grant first, equity decided later
Where Hoba Stands Today
Hoba is a lean, investor-backed drug developer. The financial year to March 2025 shows three employees, a model in which a small core team contracts out manufacturing, toxicology and trials. Its lead programme targets painful chemotherapy-induced peripheral neuropathy (CIPN), the nerve damage many cancer patients are left with after treatment. The pipeline tracker Patsnap Synapse, updated in May 2025, lists recombinant human meteorin as preclinical for trigeminal neuralgia, neuralgia and Huntington's disease, with no registered trial.
The money to get to the clinic arrived in December 2023. Novo Holdings announced a €23 million Series A first close led by Indaco Venture Partners and Medical Incubator Japan, with Novo Holdings, Eir Ventures, EIFO and the EIC Fund. The stated aim was to take HB-086 "through late pre-clinical development to the completion of Phase 1 clinical studies in patients" with CIPN. No start of those studies has been announced.
The Technology: A Protein That Mends Nerves
Hoba's science rests on meteorin and cometin, a family of human proteins that act as neurotrophic factors: signals that help nerve cells and their supporting glial cells survive and repair. HB-086 is a manufactured version of meteorin. In animal models of neuropathic pain, according to the company, it gives fast and long-lasting relief and can even prevent the pain from developing, which would make it disease-modifying rather than symptomatic.
The EIC project added a telling detail. The CORDIS report notes that HB-086 stays in the blood for only four to five hours, yet its effect lasts far longer, the pattern expected from a drug that changes the nerve rather than blocking a receptor. HB-097, the hearing-loss molecule, "preserves the sense of hearing in relevant models". All of this is animal data; the first human study is where it will be tested.
"This is an experienced investor syndicate backing Hoba Therapeutics, and these funds can contribute significantly to achieving our objectives."
Torsten M. Madsen, chief executive, Hoba Therapeutics, Series A announcement, December 2023What the EIC Project Promised, and What CORDIS Shows
Sense21 ran for three years from 1 June 2022. Its objective on CORDIS was plain: take HB-086 and HB-097 into clinical development and obtain clinical proof of principle in humans, first in healthy volunteers and then in patients. The only public report covers the first year, to May 2023, and was last updated in July 2023. Nothing has been published on CORDIS for the final two years of the project.
- Scalable manufacturing of HB-086DeliveredFirst pilot batch in May 2023, 20% above projected yield; technology transferred to a contract manufacturer.
- Regulatory toxicology packageStartedStudy protocols completed and ethical approvals obtained by mid-2023; results not published.
- First-in-human studiesNot seenNo trial registration or first dosing announced; Patsnap lists HB-086 as preclinical in May 2025.
- Clinical proof of principleNot reachedRequires patient data that does not yet exist publicly.
- Public final reportingMissingCORDIS shows only the first-year report, last updated July 2023.
What Has Happened Since the Award
Hoba did the unglamorous work well. Protein drugs live or die on manufacturing, and it scaled HB-086 production beyond its own projections within a year. It then raised a €23 million Series A from a syndicate that included a Japanese incubator and the EIC Fund. What the public record does not show is the step the EIC grant was named for: dosing a human being.
The Money
Hoba's accounts for the financial year ending March 2025, reported by Proff, show a company spending heavily on external development. Gross profit was minus DKK 38.3 million, the pre-tax loss DKK 48.5 million, and the net loss DKK 43.0 million after a tax credit. Equity at year end was DKK 26.1 million, about €3.5 million, against total assets of DKK 46.1 million.
The next raise comes first
At the spending rate of the year to March 2025, the equity left at year end would not cover another full year. The €23 million round was a first close; its second close, or a new round, will decide how far HB-086 gets. A drug that enters Phase 1 raises money far more easily than one that has not, which puts a premium on starting the trial soon.
Why Europe Should Care
A disease-modifying treatment for nerve damage caused by chemotherapy would matter to cancer patients after their treatment ends, and a non-opioid mechanism avoids the dependence risks of opioid painkillers. The hearing-loss programme targets a second sensory disorder with few drug options. Both fit the EIC's 2021 remit of backing breakthrough health technologies that private investors alone would not yet fund.
Hoba is also a case of layered public backing: founded by a life-science investor and Denmark's state investment fund, supported with an EU grant and EU equity, and financed alongside Italian and Japanese investors. The public investors are in it from both Copenhagen and Brussels.
What the EIC funded
HB-086 and HB-097 taken into clinical development, with clinical proof of principle in humans within the three-year project.
What the record shows
Manufacturing scaled, a €23M Series A raised and toxicology started, but no public trial, no human data and no CORDIS report for the last two years of the project.
The Verdict
Promising, and still in the lab
Hoba has done most of what a small biotech must do before a first human study, and it has credible investors behind it. But the EIC funded clinical proof of principle, and three years later there is no public evidence of a single human dose. That gap is common in drug development and not in itself damning. It does mean the EU's €2.33 million bought preparation for the clinic, not the clinic itself, and that the missing final report leaves the public unable to judge how close the company is.
Hoba Therapeutics has not been asked for comment for this article. It is based entirely on public records, company statements and EU project data, linked throughout.
