Novartis Venture Funds, the corporate venturing division of Switzerland-based drugs company Novartis, has co-led a $24m series A round for Euthymics Bioscience, a US-based developer of antidepressants.
Part of the funding, $2m, will be used to buy DOV Pharmaceutical and take on its drugs in development.
Campbell Murray, managing director of Novartis Venture Funds, and who will serve as Euthymics’ chairman, said: "The antidepressant prescription market is among the largest, with an excess of 200 million prescriptions dispensed annually in the US and a value exceeding $20bn worldwide. Euthymics enters this field with a ready-made market of underserved patients, a clinical-stage drug and an executive team with an impressive track record."
Novartis and US venture capital firm Venture Investors led the round for the company that was formed late last year by three executives from drugs peer Orexigen: Anthony McKinney (chief operating officer), Gary Tollefson (chief executive) and Frank Bymaster (vice president of neuroscience).
Murray added: "We [Novartis] had never previously invested in Orexigen, but on meeting Tony [McKinney, executive president] we were extremely impressed by his vision and talent and also passion for patients and the high unmet need – the current therapies available – while a significant advance in their day are not adequate and it is a shame that innovation has really fallen away in the last decade in the depression field. We were also particularly impressed by the Lilly ‘CNS dream team’ that Tony had assembled within Euthymics (Pierre Tran (chief medical officer) and Frank Bymaster (chief scientific officer) are very talented drug developers."
Tollefson died shortly after helping co-found the company.
The other investors in its A round are VCs Hambrecht & Quist Capital Management and GBS Venture Partners and the State of Wisconsin Investment Board.