MapLight Therapeutics has raised a $372.5 million series D round, clearing the biotech to chart a course through phase 2 for its would-be challenger to Bristol Myers Squibb’s schizophrenia treatment Cobenfy.
California-based MapLight is advancing a pipeline led by ML-007C-MA, an oral fixed-dose combination of a M1/M4 muscarinic agonist and a peripherally acting anticholinergic. The combination echoes Karuna Therapeutics’ successful bid to salvage Eli Lilly’s xanomeline by using a peripheral cholinergic antagonist to address nausea, vomiting and other adverse events associated with the M1/M4 agonist.
BMS paid $14 billion for Karuna’s combination, which is now approved as Cobenfy. ML-007C-MA has ceded a head start to Cobenfy, with MapLight only recently entering phase 2. But, amid setbacks for Cobenfy and AbbVie’s rival program, investors have seen enough promise to make a big bet on MapLight.
Forbion and Life Sciences at Goldman Sachs Alternatives co-led MapLight’s megaround. Additional new investors including Sanofi, Avego BioScience Capital and accounts advised by T. Rowe Price Investment Management provided assists. The continued support of existing backers such as Novo Holdings, 5AM Ventures and Blue Owl Healthcare Opportunities drove MapLight’s haul higher still.
MapLight will use the cash to run a pair of phase 2 trials. The biotech has started midphase studies in schizophrenia and Alzheimer’s disease psychosis in recent weeks. MapLight’s focus puts ML-007C-MA squarely on BMS’ turf. Cobenfy is already approved in schizophrenia, and the first of three phase 3 trials of the drug in Alzheimer’s psychosis is forecast to deliver data this year.
The ML-007C-MA trials have primary completion dates in 2027, suggesting Cobenfy could potentially be approved in both MapLight’s lead indications before the biotech enters phase 3. There is evidence that MapLight may have the better drug, though, with the biotech finding its candidate has stronger intrinsic agonist activity against M1 and M4 than xanomeline does.
AbbVie’s $8.7 billion takeover of a potential Cobenfy rival points to industry interest in M1/M4 agonists. Two other companies expressed an interest in the asset before AbbVie sealed the deal, and a third said it might be interested once more data were available.