CNS biotech MapLight Therapeutics eyes $175M raise for PhII clinical trials in schizophrenia, autism and Parkinson’s

MapLight Therapeutics, a biotech focused on central nervous system disorders, is eyeing a large $175 million financing as it beefs up the C-suite and advances multiple drug candidates. The biotech has so far raised $50 million from five investors in the offering, per a Wednesday SEC filing.

The startup has said little about its investors to-date. Nan Fung Group’s Pivotal Life Sciences started backing the biotech around its inception in 2019, and the Michael J. Fox Foundation has provided multiple grants. MapLight had raised $63 million in funding as of last November and had 49 employees as of last month, according to data from PitchBook.

Charmaine Lykins

The San Francisco and Boston biotech appears to be pumping the gas on its R&D. The four-year-old startup already has a chief commercial officer, poaching Karuna Therapeutics’ Charmaine Lykins in April. She departed Karuna, which is also a CNS drugmaker, shortly after a Phase III win on an investigational schizophrenia drug, KarXT, which led to a massive follow-on offering and a path to potential FDA approval next year.

Lykins told Endpoints News MapLight will use the funds to bankroll Phase II clinical trials. She declined to disclose MapLight’s investors.

Like Karuna’s KarXT, one of MapLight’s top candidates is an agonist of muscarinic 1 and muscarinic 4, which would be the first new mechanism of action for schizophrenia treatment in decades. Last August, MapLight completed a Phase I trial of the asset, dubbed ML-007, for people with schizophrenia and dyskinesia in Parkinson’s disease.

MapLight also moved into an open-label extension study last month with its asset for adolescents and adults with autism spectrum disorders. The tablet, dubbed ML-004, is expected to wrap up a Phase II study next month, per the federal clinical trials database.

The startup lists three other assets in its pipeline: ML-016 for depression, ML-009 for hyperactivity/impulsivity and ML-105 for depression.

A nine-figure investment marks another big splash in the depression and broader CNS R&D field. A key regulatory decision for the space is expected next month, as Sage and Biogen hope to get their investigational drug zuranolone approved by the FDA for major depressive disorder and postpartum depression. Meanwhile, well-funded Neumora is revving up three large Phase III trials in MDD.

Christopher Kroeger

The company is led by CEO Christopher Kroeger, who sold the heart failure biotech Cardioxyl Pharmaceuticals for up to $2 billion in 2015. He then helmed fertility company OvaScience, which struggled and eventually handed its Nasdaq spot to Millendo Therapeutics in 2018.

MapLight’s executive team also includes medical chief Erin Pennock Foff, a former Acadia Pharmaceuticals clinical development leader, and science chief James Lillie, who held the same post at OvaScience. Another ex-OvaScience leader, Jonathan Gillis, runs finances. Former University of California, San Francisco physiology and neurology professor Anatol Kreitzer is chief discovery officer.

Its founders include Stanford professors Karl Deisseroth, Robert Malenka and Karoly Nikolich, whose neuro- and ophthalmology-focused spinout Alkahest was bought by Grifols in 2020.

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