Autobahn raises $100M on investor interest in neuropsych drugs
Summary
Psychiatrists have used synthetic thyroid hormone off-label for years to treat depression, but the drugs arent approved for that use and come with the risk of cardiac side effects.In ABX-002, Autobahn is developing what it describes as a Trojan horse that can cross the blood-brain barrier, said Kevin Finney, the companys CEO.The company is studying the drug as an adjunctive therapy, meaning itll be tested together with other antidepressants. (Though the biotech shares its name with Germanys highway system, the name actually refers to the fictional band in The Big Lebowski, a favorite movie of one of Autobahns founders. Since then, the company has leaned into neuropsychiatry drugs, though it is still developing a S1P modulator for neuroinflammatory conditions that it plans to push into clinical testing next year. Several S1P modulators are approved to treat multiple sclerosis.Autobahn raised $125 million prior to the Series C funding round announced Wednesday, which was led by Newpath Partners. New investors included Canaan Partners, Monograph Capital, and Insight Partners, while Autobahns prior investors, among them Arch Venture Partners, Biogen, Pfizer Ventures and Bristol Myers Squibb, also joined.Finney, a former executive at Abide Therapeutics, said the company could seek additional private financing, a pharma partnership or an initial public offering to advance its drugs into Phase 3 studies.Psychiatry drugs have drawn more investment from pharma recently, with big buyouts of schizophrenia drugmakers Karuna Therapeutics and Cerevel Therapeutics two notable examples.