Seaport Therapeutics closes $225 million Series B to develop neuropsychiatric drugs
Seaport has developed a platform called Glyph designed to enhance efficacy and reduce the side effects of potential drug candidates. The original research behind the platform came from Monash University in Australia. Potential medications developed using Glyph are absorbed like fats in the diet through the lymphatic system.
The Series B adds to Seaport’s $100 million Series A round that was announced in April, alongside the launch of the company, meaning they now have $325 million in total funding. The round was led by General Atlantic and had several new investors including T. Rowe Price Associates, Inc., Foresite Capital, Invus, Goldman Sachs Alternatives, and CPP Investments. The original investors in Seaport also contributed to the Series B including ARCH Venture Partners, Sofinnova Investments, Third Rock Ventures, and co-founder PureTech Health.
American entrepreneur Daphne Zohar is both a co-founder and CEO of Seaport. Zohar was previously co-founder and CEO of PureTech Health, which was launched almost 20 years ago. Since then, PureTech has developed 29 therapeutic candidates across a range of different indications, three of which have FDA approval.
PureTech has also launched several successful spin-out companies including Karuna Therapeutics, which was acquired by BMS earlier this year and was behind the successful development and recent approval of the schizophrenia drug Cobenfy (KarXT). Zohar was also a co-founder of Karuna.
“Seaport is advancing novel therapeutics that have proven clinical efficacy but had previously been held back by an issue we can now address with our Glyph platform,” said Zohar in a press statement.
“This financing enables the important clinical work that brings us another step closer to delivering new medicines to make a difference in the lives of patients and their families.”
The quest for better psychiatry medicines
Seaport is hoping to use its oversubscribed fundraising rounds to create better psychiatric drugs that are more effective, last longer and have fewer side effects than those currently on the market.
The Glyph platform allows previously discovered potential neuropsychiatric therapies, that may have been abandoned due to adverse events, or poor absorption, or similar, to have a new lease of life, as well as new potential drug candidates.
“The development of important new neuropsychiatric medicines is often halted due to poor drug-like properties or unacceptable tolerability, challenges that our Glyph platform can now uniquely address,” said Steve Paul, co-founder and Board Chair at Seaport.
“For instance, xanomeline was an effective drug that faced tolerability challenges, but once resolved, led to the FDA approval of Cobenfy for schizophrenia. With Glyph, we believe each of Seaport’s programs could create similar life-changing value for patients.”
Seaport currently has three candidate medicines in its pipeline. The most advanced, SPT-300 is a prodrug of allopregnanolone being developed to treat major depressive disorder with or without anxious distress. Allopregnanolone has been shown to quickly reverse the symptoms of depression and anxiety, but previously was only effective in an intravenous format. Seaport has developed an oral version of this candidate, which is now at phase 2b.
The other two candidates are at an earlier stage and include SPT-320, a novel prodrug of agomelatine soon to enter phase 1 studies for the treatment of generalized anxiety disorder and SPT-348, a prodrug of a non-hallucinogenic neuroplastogen in development for the treatment of mood and other neuropsychiatric disorders.
