Big deal: Aptinyx thinks about $65m series A

Northwestern University has participated in a $65m series A round for biopharmaceutical company Aptinyx, which was spun out of central nervous system life sciences firm Naurex in September 2015.

Osage University Partners, a $400m-plus VC fund aimed at spinouts, also participated in the round, which was led by New Leaf Venture Partners.

Adams Street Partners, LVP Life Science Ventures, PathoCapital, Goudy Park Capital and Beecken Petty O’Keefe & Company returned for the series A round, having previously provided seed capital in September 2015 alongside Northwestern.

Although the size of the company’s seed round remains undisclosed, it was billed as “significant” at the time, hinting that it may have been a lot more cash than the usual six or low seven-digit amounts – as our sister site Global Corporate Venturing recently proved with news of smartphone maker Sirin Labs’ $72m seed deal, these rounds can indeed be bigger than some companies’ growth-stage rounds.

Aptinyx emerged out of Northwestern University spinout Naurex a month after the latter was acquired by pharmaceutical company Allergan in a deal worth $560m with potential future milestone payments.

Allergan was primarily interested in Naurex’s anti-depression drug candidates, which it added to its own portfolio, and spun out the discovery platform and preclinical pipeline.

Aptinyx is developing treatments for a range of psychiatric and neurological disorders in collaboration with Allergan, which has the right to in-license a select number of compounds in return for certain target indications.

The company’s compounds strengthen the neural cell communication network, improving synaptic plasticity, which facilitates the creation and storage of memories.

Both Naurex and Aptinyx are based on initial research by Joseph Moskal, professor of biomedical engineering and director of the university’s Falk Centre for Molecular Therapeutics. He is now chief scientific officer at Aptinyx.

The money will go towards clinical trials for Aptinyx’s lead drug candidate as well as discovery of additional candidates. The company expects to launch phase 1 trials in mid-2016, having already completed studies that enabled it to file an Investigational New Drug application with US regulator the Food and Drug Administration.

Aptinyx is led by president and chief executive Nobert Riedel, who previously held the same positions at Naurex. He joined that company in early 2014 from pharmaceutical company Baxter International, where he was corporate vice-president and chief science and innovation officer. Baxter Ventures, the corporate venturing subsidiary of Baxter, had invested in multiple rounds for Naurex.

Liam Ratcliffe, managing director of New Leaf Venture Partners, James Topper, managing general partner of Frazier Healthcare Partners, and Patrick Enright, founder and managing director of Longitude Capital, have joined Aptinyx’s board as part of the latest deal.

Riedel said: “Broad recognition of the potential of our proven technology and team made this a highly sought-after investment opportunity, and we are pleased to have garnered the support of such high-quality and experienced investors.

“The proceeds from this financing will fuel our discovery engine and allow us to conduct multiple clinical studies to evaluate the therapeutic properties of our promising compounds.”