US-based clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company BlackThorn Therapeutics closed a $40m series A round on Thursday that featured Johnson & Johnson Innovation – JJDC, the corporate venturing arm of healthcare group Johnson & Johnson.
The round was led by venture capital firm Arch Venture Partners, with participation from life sciences real estate provider Alexandria Real Estate Equities, Altitude Life Science Ventures, Mercury Fund and an unnamed additional fund.
BlackThorn was founded by Arch Venture Partners in collaboration with several research institutes. It is working on therapies for a range of neurobehavioural conditions such as depression, autism spectrum disorder, obsessive compulsive disorder and schizophrenia.
The company will now advance its lead candidate into phase 2 clinical trials. Avish Xavier, vice-president of venture investments at Johnson & Johnson Innovation, has joined its board of directors.
Mark Corrigan, executive chairman of BlackThorn, said: “Academic research in the field of neurobehavioural disorders has provided sophisticated methods for assessing brain disease.
“BlackThorn is dedicated to putting into practice this new and modern framework for drug discovery and development that applies scientific rigour and capital efficiency.”