Bharatt Chowrira, Ph.D., J.D., named Chief
Executive Officer of PureTech; PureTech Co-founder, Eric Elenko,
Ph.D., promoted to President
PureTech Founding Chief Executive Officer,
Daphne Zohar, to lead Seaport as Chief Executive Officer, together
with former Karuna Chief Executive Officer and Chair, Steven M.
Paul, M.D., as Chairman
PureTech Health plc (Nasdaq: PRTC, LSE: PRTC) (“PureTech” or the
“Company”), a clinical-stage biotherapeutics company dedicated to
changing the lives of patients with devastating diseases, today
announced key progress on its strategic initiatives to deliver
innovative medicines to patients and unlock value for
shareholders.
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the full release here:
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Bharatt Chowrira, PureTech Chief
Executive Officer (Photo: Business Wire)
Seaport Therapeuticsi
Seaport Therapeutics (“Seaport”), the latest Founded Entity to
be created by PureTech, today announced that it has raised $100
millionii in an oversubscribed Series A financing with
participation from top tier biotech investors ARCH Venture
Partners, Sofinnova Investments and Third Rock Ventures to support
the development of a novel clinical-stage pipeline of
neuropsychiatric medicines created and initially developed
internally at PureTech. Seaport will be led by Daphne Zohar along
with Founder Steven M. Paul, M.D., who is the former Chief
Executive officer of Karuna Therapeutics (“Karuna”), another
CNS-focused PureTech Founded Entity that was recently acquired by
Bristol Myers Squibb for $14 billion. Seaport was established by
PureTech to advance certain neuropsychiatric programs and relevant
Glyph™ intellectual property. Following the Series A financing,
PureTech will hold equity ownership in Seaport of 61.5 percent on a
diluted basis.
Executing on PureTech’s Hub-and-Spoke Strategy
Consistent with its model, PureTech has internally advanced
Seaport’s neuropsychiatric medicines programs to a key inflection
point such that the pipeline can now drive value for PureTech
through an equity stake and license consideration. This enables
PureTech to share the significant costs of later-stage development
with outside investors and direct additional resources to its
innovative R&D engine for the creation and validation of new
therapeutic candidates. This same approach yielded PureTech’s
Karuna, which resulted in approximately $1.1 billion in gross
proceeds for PureTech to date after the Company directed $18.5
million to Karuna’s founding and internal development. Under its
license agreement with Karuna, PureTech retains the right to
receive milestone payments upon the achievement of certain
regulatory approvals. PureTech is also owed certain royalties on
net sales and is eligible to receive up to $400 million in
milestone payments under its agreement with Royalty Pharma.iii
PureTech’s business model is designed to repeat and scale this
type of outcome with rigorous financial discipline. Proceeds are
recycled into the support of new programs and returns to
shareholders while maintaining at least three years of operating
cash runway. The platform supporting Seaport’s pipeline is one of
several programs advanced during a period in which PureTech largely
fueled its internal development with funds generated from Founded
Entity monetization events, and PureTech has not needed to raise
capital from the public markets in six years.
Management Transitions
As part of the strategic advancement of Seaport, Daphne Zohar,
PureTech’s founding Chief Executive Officer and a successful
entrepreneur with a longstanding passion for developing
neuropsychiatric medicines, will transition into the role of
Seaport’s Chief Executive Officer. Ms. Zohar will formally step
down from the board of directors of PureTech with immediate effect
and has agreed to serve as a senior advisor and observer to the
board of directors of PureTech.
Long-term PureTech senior executive, Bharatt Chowrira, Ph.D.,
J.D., has been named Chief Executive Officer of PureTech effective
as of today and will therefore continue to serve as a director of
PureTech. Eric Elenko, Ph.D., a PureTech co-founder and current
Chief Innovation Officer, has been promoted to the role of
President of PureTech.
A 30-year veteran of the biotech industry, Dr. Chowrira has been
a member of the PureTech senior management team since March 2017,
serving as the Company’s President and Chief Business, Finance and
Operating Officer and as a member of the Board of Directors. Prior
to joining PureTech, he held leadership roles including Chief
Executive Officer, Chief Operating Officer and General Counsel in
multiple biotech companies, including Auspex Pharmaceuticals Inc.,
which was acquired by Teva Pharmaceuticals for $3.5 billion, and
Sirna Therapeutics, which was acquired by Merck & Co. for $1.1
billion, and was also a Vice President at Merck & Co.
Commenting on today’s announcements, Dr. Chowrira said:
“I am excited to step into the CEO role and to lead PureTech
through this next phase of its evolution. We have demonstrated the
evergreen success of our hub-and-spoke R&D model of venture
creation, where we are able to recycle proceeds from our Founded
Entities into both the funding of our current and future programs
to change patients’ lives and capital returns for shareholders. As
we continue to derive value from our existing pipeline, we will
focus on what we have always done best: innovating the next wave of
highly differentiated medicines.
“Our fundamentals are centered on careful de-risking and
streamlined development internally, quickly de-prioritizing those
programs that don’t achieve our prespecified thresholds for
advancement to move resources to those that are the most promising.
We maintain 100 percent ownership of programs until a key value
inflection point is reached, and we then have the option to pursue
outside financial or strategic partners to advance these programs
or to continue development internally.
“This approach has enabled our R&D engine to be both very
productive, as demonstrated by the 28 therapeutics and therapeutic
candidates it has generated, and uniquely capital efficient –
reflected in the fact that we have not had to raise money from the
public markets in more than six years and will have returned $150
million to shareholders, pending shareholder approval of our
proposed $100 million tender offer, which is expected to be
launched after the publication of the Company's Full Year Results,
subject to market conditions. This capital efficiency also allows
us to be selective in determining the best path forward for each of
our programs, and – as demonstrated today with the top tier
syndicate of investors now supporting Seaport – our discerning
strategy has created tremendous value internally that has not yet
been appropriately recognized by the market.
“At Seaport Therapeutics, PureTech has brought together the
proven team that helped build Karuna and some of the investors that
backed Karuna’s initial funding rounds. I am confident that
following our well charted strategy of starting with validated
mechanisms and applying our proprietary Glyph technology to solve
previous limitations will enable Seaport to provide important new
options for patients with depression, anxiety and other
neuropsychiatric conditions.”
“I would like to thank Daphne for her leadership since founding
PureTech and for shepherding the Company to this next phase. I am
grateful that we will continue to benefit from Daphne’s
entrepreneurial spirit while she transitions to run one of our new
Founded Entities to drive significant value for PureTech. I look
forward to continuing to work alongside our exceptional team, and I
fervently believe that with this proven R&D model, supported by
a robust balance sheet and strong management team, PureTech has all
the ingredients for tremendous, continued growth and success.”
Reflecting on today’s announcement, Daphne Zohar said:
“I am extremely proud of what the PureTech team has accomplished
and the pipeline of groundbreaking medicines which we have created
that can have an impact on the lives of millions of people.
PureTech has now reached both financial independence and the
important inflection point of returning capital. The team is
positioned to excel and is infused with the spirit of creativity
that has been with us since the beginning. I will continue to work
on behalf of PureTech shareholders by advancing the exciting
Seaport programs through a structure that can help unlock their
value for PureTech.
“PureTech is in a strong position with an innovative portfolio
of new medicines, stellar team and robust balance sheet, and I am
pleased to be passing the baton to Bharatt who is a respected
executive in the biotech industry and has been a key senior leader
on our team over the last seven years. I have confidence that under
his leadership, together with my co-founder Eric Elenko, who is now
taking on the expanded role of President, and other outstanding
senior team and board members, PureTech will continue to thrive,
grow, and innovate on behalf of patients and shareholders. I look
forward to supporting PureTech as a senior advisor, board observer
and shareholder as it continues to deliver on its mission of
‘Giving Life to Science’ to change patients’ lives.”
Interim Chair of the PureTech Board of Directors, Raju
Kucherlapati, Ph.D., said:
“On behalf of the Board, I would like to thank Daphne for her
vision, leadership and dedication in founding and building
PureTech. Daphne pioneered the hub-and-spoke model to create
cutting-edge medicines, assembled a leading team and positioned
PureTech for an exciting future and continued growth. I am pleased
we will have her ongoing participation. We are fortunate to have
someone with Bharatt’s experience and deep knowledge of our
business to step into the role of Chief Executive Officer. He is
the ideal person to successfully lead PureTech through this next
phase of growth.”
The full text of the announcement from Seaport is as
follows:
Seaport Therapeutics Launches with $100
Million Oversubscribed Series A Financing Round to Advance Novel
Neuropsychiatric Medicines
Daphne Zohar, Founding CEO of PureTech Health
and Co-Founder of Karuna Therapeutics, is Founder, Chief Executive
Officer and Member of the Board of Directors of Seaport
Steven M. Paul, M.D., former CEO and Chair of
Karuna Therapeutics, President of Lilly Research Laboratories, is
Founder and Chair of the Board of Directors of Seaport
BOSTON – Seaport Therapeutics, a clinical-stage
biopharmaceutical company that is charting a proven path in
neuropsychiatry, today announced the closing of a $100 million
oversubscribed Series A financing round. The round was co-led by
ARCH Venture Partners and Sofinnova Investments along with Third
Rock Ventures and Seaport founder PureTech Health. Seaport also
announced the appointment of Daphne Zohar as Founder, Chief
Executive Officer and a member of the Board of Directors, and
Steven M. Paul, M.D., as Founder and Chair of the Board of
Directors.
Seaport is advancing a clinical-stage pipeline of novel
neuropsychiatric medicines powered by its proprietary Glyph™
Technology Platform, which leverages the lymphatic system to create
new medicines building on clinically validated mechanisms. The
financing will support the rapid advancement of Seaport’s
clinical-stage pipeline of first and best-in-class medicines as
well as further development of the Glyph platform, which has
demonstrated clinical proof-of-concept.
The company is built on a proven development strategy and is led
by the team that created and advanced the groundbreaking drug
candidate KarXT (xanomeline-trospium), which is now poised to be
the first new class of medicine in over 50 years for patients
living with schizophrenia. Daphne Zohar, the Chief Executive
Officer of Seaport, is the founder and former CEO of PureTech
Health where she also co-founded Karuna Therapeutics. Under Ms.
Zohar’s leadership, PureTech’s R&D engine led to 28 new
medicines, including two that received U.S. FDA clearance and a
third (KarXT) that has been filed for FDA approval.
Dr. Paul, Founder and Chair of the Seaport Board of Directors,
is the former CEO and Chair of the Board of Directors of Karuna
Therapeutics, which was recently acquired by Bristol Myers Squibb.
Dr. Paul is also the former President of Research and Development
at Eli Lilly, where he oversaw the development of CNS drugs such as
Zyprexa® and Cymbalta® as well as xanomeline, where its
anti-psychotic and pre-cognitive properties were initially
demonstrated.
"Major depression and anxiety disorders are among the most
common, disabling and potentially fatal of all medical conditions.
Current standard-of-care treatments provide inadequate relief for
far too many patients. Seaport’s pipeline of investigational
antidepressants and anxiolytics are well positioned to more
effectively treat these disorders and to help millions of people
and their families,” said Steven M. Paul M.D. “Given the
historically low success rates within neuropsychiatric drug
development, precisely solving the previous limitations of
clinically validated mechanisms improves the probability of success
and enables us to significantly accelerate development.”
“We are dedicated to bringing first and best-in-class medicines
to those that are suffering from depression, anxiety and other
neuropsychiatric disorders,” said Daphne Zohar, Founder and CEO of
Seaport Therapeutics. “I’m excited to deliver on this mission along
with a stellar team of senior leaders and investors.”
All of the programs in Seaport’s pipeline are based on the Glyph
platform, which is designed to enable and enhance oral
bioavailability, avoid first-pass metabolism and reduce
hepatotoxicity and other side effects to advance active drugs that
were previously held back by those limitations. Seaport’s most
advanced therapeutic candidate is SPT-300,iv which is an oral
prodrug of allopregnanolone, an endogenous neurosteroid, in
development for the treatment of anxious depression.
Allopregnanolone has demonstrated therapeutic benefit in a range of
neuropsychiatric conditions, but it is only approved as an
intravenous infusion, which has limited the scope of its clinical
use. Using the Glyph platform, SPT-300 retains the activity and
potency of endogenous allopregnanolone in an oral form and has the
potential to capture the breadth of the natural biological
response. In a Phase 2a clinical trial, SPT-300 demonstrated
proof-of-concept in a validated clinical model of anxiety in
healthy volunteers.
Seaport’s pipeline also includes SPT-320,v a novel prodrug of
agomelatine being advanced for the treatment of Generalized Anxiety
Disorder, which uses the Glyph platform to bypass first-pass
metabolism by the liver and thus has the potential to lower its
effective dose, reduce liver exposure and eliminate the need for
liver function monitoring that has held back agomelatine. SPT-348,
a prodrug of a non-hallucinogenic neuroplastogen in development for
the treatment of mood and other neuropsychiatric disorders,
leverages Glyph to create a potential first-in-class treatment with
improved pharmacokinetics and tolerability compared to conventional
psychedelics. Beyond these programs, Seaport has multiple discovery
and preclinical programs underway.
The additional members joining the Seaport Board of Directors
are Robert Nelsen (Managing Partner and Co-founder of ARCH Venture
Partners), James Healy, M.D., Ph.D. (Managing Partner of Sofinnova
Investments), Eric Elenko, Ph.D. (Co-founder and President of
PureTech and Co-inventor of KarXT), and Bharatt Chowrira Ph.D.,
(newly appointed Chief Executive Officer of PureTech). Courtney
Wallace (Venture Partner at Third Rock Ventures) is joining as
Board Observer.
“I’m thrilled to be partnering again with this outstanding team,
led by Daphne and Steve, to change lives for people with
neuropsychiatric disorders,” said Robert Nelsen, Co-founder and
Managing Director of ARCH Venture Partners. “We were the lead
investors in Karuna’s Series A and Series B financing rounds, and
I’m excited to partner with these strong leaders again to deliver
on Seaport’s proven strategy and robust pipeline and bring
important new medicines to patients.”
“Seaport has the potential to meaningfully change the lives of
patients with neuropsychiatric disorders,” said James Healy, M.D.,
Ph.D., Managing Partner at Sofinnova Investments. “We’ve had the
pleasure of knowing Steve and Daphne for a number of years, as one
of the investors in Karuna, and we believe this team has the unique
expertise to help solve the challenges of treating serious mental
health conditions. I am eager to support Seaport as an investor and
board member as the team continues to advance its clinical-stage
pipeline of novel therapeutics.”
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. Seaport believes the Glyph technology 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 hepatotoxicity. The Glyph platform
has been refined at Seaport to efficiently generate multiple
therapeutic candidates within the company’s pipeline. Seaport has
exclusively licensed this technology from Monash University based
on the pioneering research of the Porter research group, along with
the co-inventors from PureTech Health and Seaport. The group and
its collaborators have published research in Nature Metabolism,
Frontiers in Pharmacology and the Journal of Controlled Release
supporting the Glyph platform's capabilities.
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. We have a proven
strategy of advancing clinically validated mechanisms previously
held back by limitations we overcome with our proprietary Glyph™
technology platform. All the therapeutic candidates in our 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
hepatotoxicity and other side effects. We are led by an experienced
team that was involved in inventing and developing KarXT and other
neuropsychiatric medicines and are guided by an extensive network
of renowned scientists, clinicians and key opinion leaders across
neurological specialties. For more information, please visit
www.seaporttx.com.
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 28 therapeutics and therapeutic candidates,
including two that have received both U.S. FDA clearance and
European marketing authorization and a third (KarXT) that has been
filed for FDA approval. 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 or connect
with us on X (formerly Twitter) @puretechh.
Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements
This press release contains 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
statements that relate to our expectations around our therapeutic
candidates and approach towards addressing major diseases, 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, 2022 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.
The information contained within this announcement is deemed by
the Company to constitute inside information as stipulated under
the Market Abuse Regulations (EU) No. 596/2014 which forms part of
UK domestic law by virtue of the European Union (Withdrawal) Act
2018 ('MAR'). Upon the publication of this announcement via a
Regulatory Information Service ('RIS'), this inside information is
now considered to be in the public domain.
________________________________ i Seaport’s business and assets
are described in more detail in the press release issued by
Seaport. ii Includes participation by top tier biotech investors
ARCH Venture Partners, Sofinnova Investments and Third Rock
Ventures alongside PureTech’s $32 million cash contribution.
Following the Series A financing, PureTech will hold equity
ownership in Seaport of 61.5 percent on a diluted basis.
Additionally, as the founder of Seaport, PureTech also 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. As at 30 June 2021, the value of the gross
assets contributed by PureTech to Seaport was $18.7 million and the
losses for the year ended 31 December 2020 were $32.2 million.
Seaport will be consolidated in PureTech’s future consolidated
financial statements as a Controlled Founded Entity. iii As of 22
March 2023, PureTech has sold its right to receive a 3 percent
royalty from Karuna to Royalty Pharma on net sales up to $2 billion
annually, after which threshold PureTech will receive 67 percent of
the royalty payments and Royalty Pharma will receive 33 percent. iv
SPT-300, formerly known as LYT-300 v SPT-320, formerly known as
LYT-320
THIS ANNOUNCEMENT CONTAINS INSIDE INFORMATION FOR THE
PURPOSES OF ARTICLE 7 OF THE UK VERSION OF THE MARKET ABUSE
REGULATION (EU 596/ 2014) AS IT FORMS PART OF UK LAW BY VIRTUE OF
THE EUROPEAN UNION (WITHDRAWAL) ACT 2018, AS AMENDED.
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PureTech Public Relations
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IR@puretechhealth.com
UK/EU Media Ben Atwell, Rob Winder +44 (0) 20 3727 1000
puretech@fticonsulting.com
US Media Nichole Bobbyn +1 774 278 8273
nichole@tenbridgecommunications.com
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