Gravity Analytica

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

PRTC 10.21.2024

SERA-AI Powered Highlights

Drug:SPT-300 Allopregnanolone

Drug:SPT-320 Agomelatine

Drug:SPT-348 Non-hallucinogenic neuroplastogen

Diseases:Major Depressive Disorder

Diseases:Generalized Anxiety Disorder

Diseases:Mood and other neuropsychiatric disorders

Full Press Release SEC Filings Our PRTC Tweets

About Gravity Analytica

Recent Filings

PDF Version

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

The financing brings the total capital raised by Seaport to$325 millionsince the Company's launch inApril 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 GlyphTM 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 millionSeries 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 fromT. Rowe Price Associates,Foresite Capital,Invus, Goldman Sachs Alternatives,Canada Pension Plan Investment Board(CPP Investments) as well as other new investors

Founding investorsARCH Venture Partners, Sofinnova Investments,Third Rock Ventures, andPureTech Healthalso 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 millionSeries B financing round. The syndicate was led by General Atlantic, a leading global growth investor, with participation from funds and accounts advised byT. Rowe Price Associates, Inc.,Foresite Capital,Invus, Goldman Sachs Alternatives, CPP Investments, and other new investors. Founding investorsARCH Venture Partners, Sofinnova Investments,Third Rock Ventures, and co-founderPureTech Healthalso participated.

The financing brings the total capital raised by Seaport to$325 millionsince the company's launch inApril 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 GlyphTM 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," saidDaphne 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 withDaphne Zohar,Steve Pauland the team at Seaport," saidBrett 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," saidSteve 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 CobenfyTM (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 GlyphTM 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 fromMonash Universitybased on the pioneering research of thePorter Research Group. Advanced initially atPureTech Healthand 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 inNature Metabolism,Frontiers in Pharmacologyand theJournal of Controlled Releasesupporting the Glyph platform's capabilities. See Glyph in actionhere.

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 visitwww.seaporttx.com.

Ownership Information

PureTechcontributed$14.4 millionto 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,PureTechhas 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.

AboutPureTech Health

PureTechis 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'sR&D engine has resulted in the development of 29 therapeutics and therapeutic candidates, including three that have been approved by theU.S. Food and Drug Administration. A number of these programs are being advanced byPureTechor 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 thePureTechteam through key validation points.

For more information, visitwww.puretechhealth.comor 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 toPureTech,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 endedDecember 31, 2023, filed with theSECand 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

InvestorRelations

IR@puretechhealth.com

UK/EU Media

Ben Atwell,Rob Winder

+44 (0) 20 3727 1000

puretech@fticonsulting.com

US Media

Justin Chen

+1-609-578-7230

jchen@tenbridgecommunications.com

This information is provided by RNS, the news service of theLondon Stock Exchange. RNS is approved by the Financial Conduct Authority to act as a Primary Information Provider in theUnited Kingdom. Terms and conditions relating to the use and distribution of this information may apply. For further information, please contactrns@lseg.comor visitwww.rns.com.RNS may use your IP address to confirm compliance with the terms and conditions, to analyse how you engage with the information contained in this communication, and to share such analysis on an anonymised basis with others as part of our commercial services. For further information about how RNS and theLondon Stock Exchangeuse the personal data you provide us, please see ourPrivacy Policy.

END

MSCDXBDGBUDDGSG

Please be aware that the following content has been generated by an AI system and may contain errors, inconsistencies, or outdated information. It is provided as-is without any warranties or guarantees of accuracy. We strongly recommend using this content as a starting point for further research and consultation with relevant experts or authorities. We disclaim any liability for damages or losses resulting from the use or reliance on this content.Please note that this is a beta version of the Gravity Analytica LLC’s AI Service which isstill undergoing final testing before its official release. Theplatform, its software and all content found on it are provided on an“as is” and “as available” basis. Gravity Analytica LLC does not give any warranties,whether express or implied, as to the suitability or usability of thisservice, webpage, or its software or any of its content.Should you encounter any bugs, glitches, lack of functionality orother problems on the website, please let us know immediately so wecan rectify these accordingly. Your help in this regard is greatlyappreciated! You can write to us at this addressteam@gravityanalytica.com