Addex Therapeutics’ neuropsychiatric-focused spinout has raised $105 million in series B funds to bankroll a planned phase 2 study of its schizophrenia treatment.
Switzerland-based Addex originally launched Neurosterix in April 2024, armed with a $65 million series A led by funds affiliated with life sciences investment firm Perceptive Advisors. Neurosterix is helmed by CEO Fred Callori, who is also a managing director at Perceptive.
In a Wednesday release, Addex didn’t identify the investors in Neurosterix’s series B, only saying they came from a “syndicate of leading life science investors.” Addex, which now has an 8.5% equity interest in Neurosterix, didn’t participate in the latest round.
The top spending priority for the cash injection is NTX-253, a highly selective muscarinic M4 positive allosteric modulator (PAM), which Neurosterix is planning to take into a phase 2 trial for schizophrenia. A slice of the financing will also be spent on Neurosterix’s wider pipeline of neuropyshciatric therapies, such as a mGlu7 negative allosteric modulator called NTX-819 for mood and anxiety disorders, as well as an M4 PAM called NTX-529 aimed at additional psychosis- and mood-related disorders.
NTX-253 is an oral drug designed to fine-tune muscarinic signaling in the brain in order to reduce psychosis symptoms. The hope is that the therapy can avoid the movement disorders and metabolic complications that can be associated with traditional dopamine antagonists that are approved for schizophrenia. Geneva-based Neurosterix has already completed phase 1 single- and multiple-ascending-dose clinical studies of NTX-253.
“The closing of this significant financing is a huge endorsement of the allosteric approach pioneered by Addex in schizophrenia as well as other neuropsychiatric disorders,” Addex CEO Tim Dyer said in the release.
Addex has been working at the forefront of PAM research for decades, but its partnerships haven’t always gone smoothly. Back in 2024, Johnson & Johnson discontinued development of an Addex-partnered mGlu2 receptor PAM over poor data in a phase 2 epilepsy trial, while two months ago Indivior Pharmaceuticals ended its own long-running PAM collaboration with Addex ahead of Indivior’s merger with Supernus.
Part of Addex’s aim in launching Neurosterix back in 2024 was to reduce the parent company’s operating costs and extend its cash runway into this year. At the time, Addex retained a 20% equity interest in the spinout.
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