REG - PureTech Health PLC - PRTC's Seaport Closes $225M Series B Financing

Puretech HealthAnnouncement

21/10/2024 07:00

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RNS Number : 8959I  PureTech Health PLC  21 October 2024

21 October 2024

PureTech Health plc

 

PureTech Founded Entity Seaport Therapeutics Closes $225 Million
Oversubscribed Series B Financing Round

 

Financing led by General Atlantic with participation from other top tier
investors

 

Proceeds will support key clinical milestones in Seaport's pipeline of first
and best-in-class neuropsychiatric medicines

 

PureTech Health plc (https://puretechhealth.com/) (Nasdaq: PRTC, LSE: PRTC)
("PureTech" or the "Company"), a clinical-stage biotherapeutics company, noted
that its Founded Entity, Seaport Therapeutics (https://seaporttx.com/) ,
("Seaport") a biopharmaceutical company that is advancing novel
neuropsychiatric medicines with a proven strategy and team, today announced
the closing of an oversubscribed $225 million Series B financing round. The
syndicate was led by General Atlantic, a leading global growth investor, with
participation from funds and accounts advised by T. Rowe Price Associates,
Inc., Foresite Capital, Invus, Goldman Sachs Alternatives, CPP Investments,
and other new investors. Founding investors ARCH Venture Partners, Sofinnova
Investments, Third Rock Ventures, and co-founder PureTech also participated.
Following the Series B financing, PureTech will hold equity ownership in
Seaport of 36.7% on a diluted basis.

 

The financing brings the total capital raised by Seaport to $325 million since
the Company's launch in April 2024. Seaport will use the proceeds to advance
its clinical-stage pipeline of first and best-in-class medicines through
important clinical milestones as well as further advance the capabilities of
the Glyph™ technology platform, which has demonstrated clinical
proof-of-concept. The programs in Seaport's pipeline use the Glyph platform,
which is designed to enable and enhance oral bioavailability, avoid first-pass
metabolism and reduce liver enzyme elevations or hepatotoxicity and other side
effects to advance clinically active drugs that were previously hindered by
those limitations.

 

Commenting on today's announcement, Bharatt Chowrira, PhD, JD, Chief Executive
Officer of PureTech and a member of the Seaport Board of Directors, said:

 

"We're very pleased with Seaport's $225 million Series B financing. Led by a
syndicate of top-tier investors, this milestone highlights the significant
progress we're making across our portfolio. The strong support from this
stellar investor group not only reinforces the value generated by our unique
R&D engine but also underscores our commitment to advancing transformative
therapies for patients. As we look ahead to the upcoming data readout for our
internal LYT-100 (deupirfenidone) program, we're excited to continue driving
innovation across our portfolio with the goal of delivering impactful
treatments that address significant medical needs."

 

The full text of the announcement from Seaport is as follows:

 

Seaport Therapeutics Closes $225 Million Oversubscribed Series B Financing
Round

 

 Financing led by General Atlantic with participation from T. Rowe Price
Associates, Foresite Capital, Invus, Goldman Sachs Alternatives, Canada
Pension Plan Investment Board (CPP Investments) as well as other new investors

 

Founding investors ARCH Venture Partners, Sofinnova Investments, Third Rock
Ventures, and PureTech Health also participated

 

Proceeds will support key clinical milestones in Seaport's pipeline of first
and best-in-class neuropsychiatric medicines

 

BOSTON, October 21, 2024 - Seaport Therapeutics ("Seaport"), a clinical-stage
biopharmaceutical company that is advancing novel neuropsychiatric medicines
with a proven strategy and team, today announced the closing of an
oversubscribed $225 million Series B financing round. The syndicate was led by
General Atlantic, a leading global growth investor, with participation from
funds and accounts advised by T. Rowe Price Associates, Inc., Foresite
Capital, Invus, Goldman Sachs Alternatives, CPP Investments, and other new
investors. Founding investors ARCH Venture Partners, Sofinnova Investments,
Third Rock Ventures, and co-founder PureTech Health also participated.

 

The financing brings the total capital raised by Seaport to $325 million since
the company's launch in April 2024. Seaport will use the proceeds to advance
its clinical-stage pipeline of first and best-in-class medicines through
important clinical milestones as well as further advance the capabilities of
the Glyph™ technology platform, which has demonstrated clinical
proof-of-concept.

 

"We are grateful to have the partnership of this incredible group of new and
existing investors who share our commitment of delivering better medicines for
those suffering from depression, anxiety and other neuropsychiatric
disorders," said Daphne Zohar, Founder and CEO of Seaport Therapeutics.
"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. 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."

 

"We are excited to partner with Daphne Zohar, Steve Paul and the team at
Seaport," said Brett Zbar, M.D., Managing Director and Global Head of Life
Sciences at General Atlantic. "We are impressed with the team's outstanding
CNS clinical track record, as well as Seaport's Glyph platform and innovative
pipeline. The approach to clinical development and trial design demonstrates
the deep neuropsychiatric expertise around the table, which we believe offers
unique advantages that will contribute to Seaport's success. We look forward
to supporting the company's next phase of development."

 

The programs in Seaport's pipeline use the Glyph platform, which is designed
to enable and enhance oral bioavailability, avoid first-pass metabolism and
reduce liver enzyme elevations or hepatotoxicity and other side effects to
advance clinically active drugs that were previously hindered by those
limitations. The most advanced therapeutic candidate in the pipeline is
SPT-300, an oral prodrug of allopregnanolone that is being advanced into a
Phase 2b study for major depressive disorder with or without anxious distress
that has the potential to be registration-enabling. Allopregnanolone is an
endogenous neurosteroid with clinically validated rapid anti-depressant and
anxiolytic activity, and SPT-300 retains this activity in an oral form.

 

"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, M.D., Founder
and Board Chair at Seaport Therapeutics. "For instance, xanomeline was an
effective drug that faced tolerability challenges, but once resolved, led to
the FDA approval of Cobenfy™ (formerly KarXT) for schizophrenia. With Glyph,
we believe each of Seaport's programs could create similar life-changing value
for patients."

 

SPT-320, a novel prodrug of agomelatine being advanced into Phase 1 studies
for the treatment of generalized anxiety disorder (GAD), has the potential to
be the first new mechanism for GAD in decades. SPT-320 uses Glyph to bypass
liver first-pass metabolism and thus has the potential to lower the dose and
reduce liver exposure while retaining efficacious systemic exposure of
agomelatine that has been validated in multiple clinical studies in GAD. The
reduction in dose has the potential to eliminate the need for liver function
monitoring that has previously held back agomelatine's development in
GAD. SPT-348, a prodrug of a non-hallucinogenic neuroplastogen in development
for the treatment of mood and other neuropsychiatric disorders, uses Glyph to
create a potential first-in-class treatment. Beyond these programs, Seaport
has multiple discovery and preclinical programs underway.

 

About the Glyph™ Platform

Glyph is Seaport's proprietary technology platform which uses the lymphatic
system to enable and enhance the oral administration of drugs. With the Glyph
platform, drugs are absorbed like dietary fats through the intestinal
lymphatic system and transported into circulation. The Glyph platform has the
potential to be widely applied to many therapeutic molecules that have high
first-pass metabolism leading to low bioavailability and/or side effects,
including liver enzyme elevations or hepatotoxicity. Seaport exclusively
licensed this technology from Monash University based on the pioneering
research of the Porter Research Group. Advanced initially at PureTech Health
and now at Seaport, Glyph has been applied to create therapeutic candidates
for the company's pipeline resulting in new intellectual property, including
composition of matter. The group and its collaborators have published research
in Nature Metabolism (https://www.nature.com/articles/s42255-021-00457-w)
, Frontiers in Pharmacology (https://doi.org/10.3389/fphar.2022.879660)  and
the Journal of Controlled Release
(https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0168365921000717?via%3Dihub)
 supporting the Glyph platform's capabilities. See Glyph in action here
(https://seaporttx.com/our-pipeline/#glyph_in_action) .

 

About Seaport Therapeutics

Seaport Therapeutics is a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company advancing
the development of novel neuropsychiatric medicines in areas of high unmet
patient needs. The company has a proven strategy of advancing clinically
validated mechanisms previously held back by limitations that are overcome
with its proprietary Glyph technology platform. All the therapeutic
candidates in its pipeline of first and best-in-class medicines are based on
the Glyph platform, which is uniquely designed to enable oral bioavailability,
bypass first-pass metabolism and reduce liver enzyme elevations or
hepatotoxicity and other side effects. Seaport is led by an experienced team
that invented and advanced important neuropsychiatric medicines and are guided
by an extensive network of renowned scientists, clinicians and key opinion
leaders. For more information, please visit www.seaporttx.com
(http://www.seaporttx.com/) .

 

Ownership Information

PureTech contributed $14.4 million to the Series B financing and now holds
equity ownership in Seaport of 36.7 percent on a diluted basis. Additionally,
as the founder of Seaport, PureTech has a right to royalty payments on a
percentage of net sales of any commercialized product as well as the right
under the terms of the license agreement with Seaport to receive milestone
payments upon the achievement of certain regulatory approvals and a percentage
of sublicense income.

 

About PureTech Health

PureTech is a clinical-stage biotherapeutics company dedicated to giving life
to new classes of medicine to change the lives of patients with devastating
diseases. The Company has created a broad and deep pipeline through its
experienced research and development team and its extensive network of
scientists, clinicians and industry leaders that is being advanced both
internally and through its Founded Entities. PureTech's R&D engine has
resulted in the development of 29 therapeutics and therapeutic candidates,
including three that have been approved by the U.S. Food and Drug
Administration. A number of these programs are being advanced by PureTech or
its Founded Entities in various indications and stages of clinical
development, including registration enabling studies. All of the underlying
programs and platforms that resulted in this pipeline of therapeutic
candidates were initially identified or discovered and then advanced by the
PureTech team through key validation points.

 

For more information, visit www.puretechhealth.com
(http://www.puretechhealth.com) or connect with us on X (formerly Twitter)
@puretechh.

 

Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements

This press release contains statements that are or may be forward-looking
statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act
of 1995. All statements contained in this press release that do not relate to
matters of historical fact should be considered forward-looking statements,
including without limitation those related to additional milestones or
royalties potentially due to PureTech, Seaport's development plans for its
pipeline of therapeutics for the treatment of depression, anxiety and other
neuropsychiatric disorders, potential benefits to patients, the anticipated
use of proceeds from the Series B financing and Seaport's and our future
prospects, developments and strategies. The forward-looking statements are
based on current expectations and are subject to known and unknown risks,
uncertainties and other important factors that could cause actual results,
performance and achievements to differ materially from current expectations,
including, but not limited to, those risks, uncertainties and other important
factors described under the caption "Risk Factors" in our Annual Report on
Form 20-F for the year ended December 31, 2023, filed with the SEC and in our
other regulatory filings. These forward-looking statements are based on
assumptions regarding the present and future business strategies of the
Company and the environment in which it will operate in the future. Each
forward-looking statement speaks only as at the date of this press release.
Except as required by law and regulatory requirements, we disclaim any
obligation to update or revise these forward-looking statements, whether as a
result of new information, future events or otherwise.

 

Contact:

PureTech

Public Relations

publicrelations@puretechhealth.com (mailto:publicrelations@puretechhealth.com)

Investor Relations

IR@puretechhealth.com (mailto:IR@puretechhealth.com)

 

UK/EU Media

Ben Atwell, Rob Winder

+44 (0) 20 3727 1000

puretech@fticonsulting.com (mailto:puretech@fticonsulting.com)

 

US Media

Justin Chen

+1-609-578-7230

jchen@tenbridgecommunications.com (mailto:jchen@tenbridgecommunications.com)
 

 

 

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