TIDMPRTC
RNS Number : 6718E
PureTech Health PLC
20 July 2016
20 July 2016
PureTech Health plc
PureTech's Akili Adds Two Pharma Venture Funds to Series B
Financing, Increasing Round to $42.4 Million
Akili now has relationships with four major biopharma companies
or their investment affiliates
PureTech Health plc ("PureTech", LSE: PRTC), a
cross-disciplinary biotech company tackling fundamental healthcare
needs in disruptive ways, notes an $11.9 million expansion of its
operating company Akili Interactive Labs Inc.'s ("Akili") Series B
financing - bringing the total Series B proceeds to $42.4 million.
Amgen Ventures, the venture arm of Amgen, and Merck Ventures BV,
Amsterdam, The Netherlands, a subsidiary of Merck KGaA, Darmstadt,
Germany (known as M Ventures in the United States and Canada)
joined existing investors, including PureTech. With the investments
from Amgen Ventures and M Ventures, Akili now has four
relationships with major biopharma companies or their investment
affiliates, including its existing partnership with Pfizer, Inc.
and an investment from Shire Pharmaceuticals.
Daphne Zohar, Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer at
PureTech, said: "We see immense value for safe and effective
non-pharmacological treatments along with diagnostics for patients
across a range of mental health and neurological conditions. The
commitment from Amgen Ventures and M Ventures, alongside existing
investors, demonstrates additional validation and confidence in
Akili. We believe that these and other relationships signify our
leadership position at the interface of mental health and digital
medicine."
In January this year, Akili announced it had raised $30.5
million in new equity from investors including JAZZ Venture
Partners, Canepa Advanced Healthcare Fund and PureTech. This
additional investment brings the round to $42.4 million.
Akili is currently conducting a pivotal trial of its lead
product candidate, Project: EVO(TM), in paediatric Attention
Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) through the STARS-ADHD study,
with an anticipated read-out in the first half of 2017. If the
results of this pivotal study are favourable, Akili plans to seek
approval from the United States Food and Drug Administration by the
end of 2017 for this potential first-in-class treatment. Akili also
anticipates data from the Alzheimer's pilot biomarker study funded
by Pfizer to be available in the second half of 2016. The company
has multiple clinical studies in cognitive disorders and has
recently expanded into disorders across neurodegeneration where
cognition is significantly impacted, including Parkinson's disease,
major depressive disorder, and multiple sclerosis, both for the
potential to better track the disease course and for the potential
of early non-pharmacological treatment.
The full text of the announcement from Akili is as follows:
Akili Adds Amgen Ventures and M Ventures* to Series B Financing,
Increasing Round to $42.4 Million
Marks commitment to digital medicine for the two pharma venture
firms
BOSTON, Massachusetts, July 20, 2016 - Akili Interactive Labs,
Inc. ("Akili"), a digital medicine company developing novel,
non-pharmacological therapeutics and diagnostics for cognitive
disorders, today announced an $11.9 million expansion of its recent
Series B financing. *Merck Ventures BV, Amsterdam, The Netherlands,
a subsidiary of Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany (known as M Ventures
in the United States and Canada), and Amgen Ventures, the venture
arm of Amgen, joined existing investors to bring the total Series B
proceeds to $42.4 million. Akili will use the funds to support and
expand clinical development of its clinical-stage products into new
areas, with an expanded focus on neurodegeneration, and to build
out its commercial infrastructure as Akili nears the market with
its late-stage products. With the M Ventures and Amgen Ventures
investments, Akili now has four relationships with major biopharma
companies or their investment affiliates, including its existing
partnership with Pfizer, Inc. and an investment from Shire
Pharmaceuticals.
"We're excited to see M Ventures and Amgen Ventures commit to
the development of digital medicine, and we're proud to be M
Ventures' first investment in the space," said Eddie Martucci,
Ph.D., Co-founder and Chief Executive Officer of Akili. "There
exists a tremendous opportunity to deliver medicine that is
efficacious and addresses the needs for safe, non-pharmacological
treatments in many neurological and mental health patient
populations. M Ventures' and Amgen Ventures' support, combined with
that of our existing investors, will help us continue to advance
our projects toward commercialisation."
"The investment in Akili represents the first investment from
our recently announced New Businesses fund," said Roel Bulthuis,
Managing Director of M Ventures. "We believe digital medicine is
the next frontier in healthcare, and we're committed to helping
bring digital into mainstream biopharma for a variety of patient
and clinical needs. We see the medical segment within digital
health growing rapidly, so we're engaging with pioneering strategic
partners like Akili to help advance this new category of
medicine."
Akili is currently conducting a pivotal trial of its lead
product candidate, Project: EVO(TM), in paediatric Attention
Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) through the STARS-ADHD study
and plans to seek approval from the United States Food and Drug
Administration for this potential first-in-class treatment if the
results of the pivotal study are favourable. The company has
multiple clinical studies in cognitive disorders and has recently
expanded into disorders across neurodegeneration where cognition is
significantly impacted, including Parkinson's disease, major
depressive disorder, and multiple sclerosis, both for the potential
to better track the disease course and for the potential of early
non-pharmacological treatment.
About Amgen Ventures
Amgen Ventures is the strategic venture capital arm of Amgen and
provides emerging innovative companies with financial and other
resources to develop pioneering discoveries to treat grievous human
illnesses.
About M Ventures
Merck Ventures BV, Amsterdam, The Netherlands, a subsidiary of
Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany, known as M Ventures in the United
States and Canada, is the strategic, corporate venture capital arm
of Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany.
About Project: EVO(TM) Platform
Akili's lead product platform, Project: EVO(TM) , is based on
technology exclusively licensed from the lab of Dr. Adam Gazzaley
at the University of California, San Francisco. The mechanics of
the platform are designed to directly target an individual's core
neurological ability to process multiple streams of information,
which represents a novel neurological target for Akili's
intervention and monitoring products. The intervention product has
the potential to improve attention, working memory and other
executive functions in patients through direct interaction with the
device, and the monitoring product may enable screening across
neurological and psychiatric disorders. The device can adapt
difficulty automatically in real-time, allowing individuals of
wide-ranging ability levels to interact with the product remotely
without the need for physician calibration. Akili is currently
conducting multiple clinical trials of its platform across a
variety of patient populations, including paediatric ADHD, autism
spectrum disorder (in collaboration with Autism Speaks),
depression, Alzheimer's disease and traumatic brain injury.
About Akili Interactive Labs
Akili is building clinically validated cognitive treatments and
assessments that are delivered in an action video game interface.
Leveraging medical-grade science and consumer-grade software
technology, the company is seeking to produce a new type of medical
product that can offer safe and effective scalable treatment and
better patient monitoring for patients across a range of mental
health and neurological conditions. The company was founded by
PureTech Health (PRTC.L), together with leading neuroscientists and
game designers. Akili has garnered investment from Shire PLC and
has strategic partnerships with Pfizer, Inc. and Autism Speaks.
With additional option grants to Akili management, PureTech
Health plc (PRTC.L) will own approximately 59% of the company on a
diluted basis(1) (after the investment of the second tranche in
September 2016).
(1) This calculation of PureTech's holding includes issued and
outstanding shares as well as options to purchase shares, but
excludes unallocated shares authorised to be issued pursuant to
equity incentive plans.
About PureTech Health
PureTech Health (PureTech Health plc, PRTC.L) is a
cross-disciplinary biotech company focused on areas of growing
scientific and technical insights that it believes are at an
important inflection point, including the central nervous,
gastro-intestinal and immune systems, and the interactions and
signalling between them. PureTech has approximately 20 clinical
studies across its pipeline targeting multi-billion dollar market
opportunities, including five human proof-of-concept studies and
multiple pivotal or registration study readouts expected in the
next two years. While inevitably some technologies will not advance
to commercialisation, PureTech's approach mitigates risk as most of
the cash resides on a PureTech parent company level, allowing
PureTech to build value and divert cash to its most successful
programmes as milestones are achieved. PureTech has over 220
patents and patent applications. PureTech's leading team and board,
along with an advisory network of more than 60 expert
founder-scientists and advisors across multiple disciplines, gives
PureTech access to potentially ground-breaking science and
technological innovation. With healthcare undergoing major
transformation, PureTech believes it is well positioned to develop
and launch medicines for the 21st century. For more information,
visit www.puretechhealth.com and connect with us on Twitter.
Forward Looking Statement
This press release contains statements that are or may be
forward-looking statements, including statements that relate to the
company's future prospects, developments and strategies. The
forward-looking statements are based on current expectations and
are subject to known and unknown risks and uncertainties that could
cause actual results, performance and achievements to differ
materially from current expectations, including, but not limited
to, those risks and uncertainties described in the risk factors
included in the regulatory filings for PureTech Health plc. 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,
neither the company nor any other party intends to update or revise
these forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new
information, future events or otherwise.
Enquiries
PureTech
Allison Mead, Director, Communications +1 617 651
and Investor Relations 3156
FTI Consulting (Communications adviser
to PureTech)
Ben Atwell +44 (0) 20
Matthew Cole 3727 1000
This information is provided by RNS
The company news service from the London Stock Exchange
END
MSCAKCDNBBKBQOD
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
July 20, 2016 02:00 ET (06:00 GMT)
Puretech Health (LSE:PRTC)
Historical Stock Chart
From Jun 2024 to Jul 2024
Puretech Health (LSE:PRTC)
Historical Stock Chart
From Jul 2023 to Jul 2024