Rapport Therapeutics Launches with $100 Million to Transform Treatment of Neurological Disease through Precision Therapies

Rare Daily Staff

Rapport Therapeutics, a clinical-stage biotechnology company dedicated to the discovery and development of precision medicines for neurological disorders, launched today with $100 million in a series A financing to support its novel platform to discover precision targeted small molecule drugs to treat neurological disorders.

The company’s lead program in phase 1 studies is for the treatment of drug-resistant seizure disorders.

Rapport was conceived and created through a collaboration between Third Rock Ventures and JJDC. Third Rock Ventures, ARCH Venture Partners and Johnson & Johnson Innovation – JJDC provided the funding. Abraham Ceesay, who has nearly 20 years of leadership experience in the biopharmaceutical industry, was named CEO. Most recently he served as president of the neuroscience company Cerevel Therapeutics. Prior to that, he was CEO of the neuroendocrine company Tiburio Therapeutics.

Rapport is leveraging discoveries and decades of advances by its scientific founders to create therapeutics that precisely target the subset of neurons where neurological disorders originate. Its platform harnesses receptor-associated proteins, or RAPs, to discover small molecule therapeutics acting selectively on genetically and clinically validated targets. This approach provides precision at targeting receptors in the specific neuroanatomical regions underlying the pathophysiology of neurological disorders.

Rapport’s founder and Chief Scientific Officer, David Bredt, discovered RAPs and their role in modulating receptor expression and function more than two decades ago. His discovery and the continued work of Bredt and several founding Rapport team members laid the foundation for the company’s approach and its discovery engine, which uses genomics, protein science, and brain imaging technologies to identify novel RAPs and enable precision neuromedicine drug development.

This approach contrasts with current treatments that act at targets expressed ubiquitously in the nervous system and, in some cases, other areas of the body. This indiscriminate approach leads to suboptimal efficacy and burdensome safety and tolerability, according to Rapport.

Rapport says its precision medicine approach not only unlocks the ability to discover treatments that can improve upon the efficacy and tolerability of existing therapies, but also creates novel approaches to treating neurological disorders where there are currently no effective treatments.

“Rapport is bringing together pioneers in neuroscience to create revolutionary treatment options for patients who have long endured the shortcomings of nonspecific therapeutics,” said Ceesay. “The era of precision neuroscience is upon us, and patients’ needs have never been greater. At Rapport we believe that by leveraging the discovery of receptor-associated proteins by our founders, we are poised to develop precision medicines that will greatly improve the lives of patients living with neurologic disorders.”

Photo: Abraham Ceesay, CEO of Rapport