UT Dallas spinout Cersci Therapeutics has been acquired in a deal potentially worth nearly $940m, including a $52.5m upfront payment.
Cersci Therapeutics, a US-based neurological medicine spinout of University of Texas at Dallas, was acquired by central nervous system-focused biopharmaceutical firm Acadia Pharmaceuticals for $52.5m yesterday.
The deal mainly consists of Acadia shares. Cersci’s shareholders will also be eligible for up to $887m in milestones and royalties if its assets prove to be commercially viable.
Founded in 2015, Cersci Therapeutics is working on clinical-stage drugs for neurological conditions including strong painkillers for acute and chronic pain disorders that do not contain addictive opioid ingredients.
Cersci’s lead asset, ACP-044, would block multiple biochemical pathways that make neurons more sensitive to aching in order to treat post-surgical and neuropathic pain.
The drug candidate has already completed animal and phase 1 trials and is expected to commence phase 2 studies in the first half of 2021.
Acadia will add ACP-044 to its own portfolio of non-opioid analgaesic drugs, along with Cersci’s pre-clinical pipeline for indications such as migraines and neurodegenerative disease.
Cersci pulled in $12m of equity funding and debt from undisclosed investors in March 2020, according to a regulatory filing, having raised $8m of that amount five months previously.
The spinout had received almost $4m in a 2017 series A round led by Hiawatha Education Foundation that featured a North Texas consortium represented by Dallas craniofacial surgeon David Genecov.
