RARE Daily

Praxis Precision Medicines Adds $110 Million to Coffers to Target Brain Disorders

July 28, 2020

Rare Daily Staff

Praxis Precision Medicines said it raised approximately $110 million in a series C1 financing to develop a clinical stage pipeline of therapies that target the underlying causal mechanisms of both prevalent and rare brain disorders with overlapping disease biology.

The new funding comes less than three months after the company launched with $100 million in funding. Eventide Asset Management led the new funding, with participation from existing investors Vida Ventures, Novo Holdings, Blackstone Life Sciences and OCV Partners, and new participation from Avoro Capital Advisors, Surveyor Capital, Point72, Cormorant Asset Management, Qatar Investment Authority, Irving Investors, Adage Capital Management, Verition Fund Management, and Ample Plus Fund.

“With three programs currently in clinical development for five indications, and additional programs in earlier stages of development, we are making great strides to bring new treatments to patients in the CNS space,” said Marcio Souza, president and CEO of Praxis.

Praxis is leveraging recent discoveries in the genetics of epilepsy, which have elucidated genes that when dysregulated, drive a range of neuropsychiatric and movement disorders. Using these insights, Praxis is rapidly advancing a pipeline of treatments that specifically address genes controlling the imbalance of excitation and inhibition of neuronal circuitry at the core of multiple CNS disorders.

The company’s lead drugs in development include PRAX-114, a GABAA positive allosteric modulator in phase 2 development for the treatment of major depressive disorder and perimenopausal depression; PRAX-944, a T-type calcium channel blocker in phase 2 development for the treatment of essential tremor; and PRAX-562, currently in phase 1 development for the treatment of pediatric epilepsy and adult cephalgia.

Photo: Marcio Souza, president and CEO of Praxis

 

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