A well-known investor in biotech companies has purchased a 6.8 percent stake in Durham-based Dova Pharmaceuticals Inc., according to a filing Tuesday with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Joseph Edelman of Perceptive Advisors LLC purchased 1.7 million shares of the company, worth more than $30 million.

Edelman founded New York-based Perceptive Advisors in 1999. Previously, he was senior analyst at Aries Fund, a Paramount Capital Asset Management biotechnology hedge fund, from November 1994 through December 1998.

Before that, Edelman was senior biotechnology analyst at Prudential Securities for four years. He started his career in the health care sector of the securities industry as biotechnology analyst at Labe, Simpson.

His life sciences fund gained 51.8 percent in 2015, earning him $300 million.

Dova went public in late June. The company was formed in March 2016 and has produced no revenue. It posted a loss of $27.2 million in 2016 and a loss of $5.4 million in the first three months of 2017.

Dova is developing treatments for patients suffering from orphan diseases.

The company’s lead investigational drug, avatrombopag, is in the process of completing two Phase 3 clinical trials researching its use as a potential treatment for thrombocytopenia in patients with chronic liver disease.

The drug has not been approved by the Food and Drug Administration or other regulatory authorities for any use. The company said it plans to file a new drug application in the third quarter of this year.

Note: This story is from the North Carolina Business News Wire, a service of the UNC-Chapel Hill School of Media and Journalism