Adamas Pharmaceuticals Raises $40 Million in Series D Financing
-Appoints George M. Rehm and David L. Mahoney to Board of Directors-
EMERYVILLE, Calif., Aug. 18 /PRNewswire/ -- Adamas Pharmaceuticals, Inc., a privately held company, announced today that it has closed a $40 million Series D round of funding led by aeris CAPITAL AG and DAG Ventures. Earlier investors MDV-Mohr Davidow Ventures and Northgate Capital also participated in the round. In conjunction with the financing, the company announced the election of George M. Rehm, Managing Partner of aeris CAPITAL AG, and David L. Mahoney, a private equity investor, to the company's Board of Directors.
Adamas was founded in 2004 to address vexing global health problems such as Parkinson's disease and dementia, and infectious diseases such as influenza. Adamas uses proven technologies to create precisely calibrated fixed-dose regimens in controlled release combinations that overcome the limitations of monotherapy and conventional formulations. The company has three product candidates in development: ADS-8902, its proprietary triple combination antiviral drug (TCAD) therapy for flu, ADS-5101, a proprietary once-daily extended release (ER) formulation of amantadine hydrochloride for the symptomatic treatment of Parkinson's disease and other disorders, and ADS-8703, a proprietary fixed-dose combination for the symptomatic treatment of dementia.
"Adamas is at an important inflection point with our rapidly advancing TCAD-therapy program for flu and two late-stage clinical development programs for neurology indications," said Gregory Went, Chief Executive Officer and Chairman of Adamas. "Proceeds from the Series D financing will fund clinical studies of TCAD therapy in the Northern and Southern hemispheres in patients infected with influenza who are at risk of serious outcomes, as well as advance us towards significant regulatory milestones in our neurology programs."
Adamas is pioneering triple-combination antiviral drug (TCAD) therapy for influenza, which is designed to inhibit viral replication at multiple points in the virus proliferation pathway. TCAD therapy includes Adamas' investigational proprietary fixed-dose combination of amantadine and ribavirin, to be administered adjunctively with a neuraminidase inhibitor such as Tamiflu (oseltamivir phosphate, Roche). Preclinical data indicate that the in vitro combination of these drugs, each with their own mechanism of action, act synergistically to provide a much higher level of antiviral activity than single or double drug combination therapies. In in vitro studies to date, TCAD therapy also has been found to provide greater antiviral activity across multiple strains of influenza, even those resistant to single pharmaceutical agents. Adamas is accelerating development of its TCAD therapy for influenza A by conducting a Phase 2 clinical trial in the Southern Hemisphere where the novel influenza A/H1N1 pandemic is active, and is preparing to initiate a clinical study of TCAD therapy for influenza A in North America during this upcoming flu season.
Dr. Went added, "Our Board of Directors welcomes George Rehm and David Mahoney, whose diverse expertise and perspectives will help drive Adamas' global development, partnering and US commercial planning strategies. We look forward to their contributions to our goal of developing and commercializing pharmaceutical products that improve health outcomes."
George M. Rehm is a Managing Partner of aeris CAPITAL AG in Switzerland and has over twenty five years experience as a lawyer and executive in international licensing, technology transfer, investment and privatization transactions, involving the US, Europe and Asia, prior to commencing his current career in private equity. Currently, he holds board seats in numerous portfolio companies. Mr. Rehm remains of counsel to the Munich, Heidelberg and Berlin law firm of Weitnauer Partners. He received his BSFS from Georgetown University, and a JD from the University of California, Hastings College of Law.
David L. Mahoney is a private equity investor and currently serves as a director of Symantec Corp. and Corcept Therapeutics. Mr. Mahoney served as co-CEO of McKesson HBOC, Inc. (now McKesson Corporation - NYSE: MCK) and as CEO of iMcKesson LLC from July 1999 to February 2001. He joined McKesson in 1990 as Vice President for Strategic Planning, and is credited with developing innovative business strategies to grow the PCS Health System subsidiary, leading to the sale of PCS to Eli Lilly & Co. Prior to joining McKesson, Mr. Mahoney was a principal with McKinsey & Company from 1981 to 1990. Mr. Mahoney is an honors graduate from Harvard Business School and Princeton University.
About Adamas
Adamas is an emerging pharmaceutical company focused on developing small molecule, Advantaged Therapeutics(TM) to treat neurological and infectious diseases, including influenza A, the cause of the current flu pandemic. Adamas' approach to pharmaceutical development is to identify and match proven drug mechanisms that can be developed as optimized combination drug therapies to increase safety, efficacy and compliance, thus improving upon the standard of care. Adamas is headquartered in Emeryville, California, with operations in Bangalore, India. For more information about Adamas, please visit www.adamaspharma.com.