BOSTON & SAN DIEGO–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Rapport Therapeutics, Inc., a clinical-stage biotechnology company leveraging the science of receptor-associated proteins (RAPs) to advance precision neuromedicines, today announced that it has raised $150 million in Series B funding. Led by Cormorant Asset Management, the round includes investments from Fidelity Management & Research Company, Goldman Sachs Asset Management, Logos Capital, Perceptive Advisors, Sofinnova Investments, Surveyor Capital (a Citadel company), funds and accounts advised by T. Rowe Price Associates, Inc., and all existing investors, which include Third Rock Ventures, ARCH Venture Partners and Johnson & Johnson Innovation – JJDC, Inc. (JJDC).
Concurrent with the round, Rapport has appointed Raymond Kelleher, M.D., Ph.D., Managing Director of Cormorant Asset Management, and James Healy, M.D., Ph.D., Managing Partner of Sofinnova Investments, to its Board of Directors.
“We are appreciative for the support of such a prominent group of new investors and excited to welcome Ray and Jim to our board of directors,” said Abraham Ceesay, Chief Executive Officer of Rapport. “Rapport is extremely well positioned to advance our ongoing clinical programs in seizure and psychiatric disorders, and to expand our pipeline by harnessing our unique capability to leverage receptor-associated proteins for precision neuromedicine. We are poised for tremendous growth and look forward to pursuing a wide variety of opportunities to serve patients who desperately need more effective treatments.”
Rapport is leveraging discoveries made by its scientific founders to target receptors in specific neuroanatomical regions underlying the pathophysiology of neurological disorders. Its approach, based on identifying and targeting receptor-associated proteins, contrasts with current treatments that act on targets expressed ubiquitously in the nervous system and, in some cases, other areas of the body. In June, the company appointed a scientific advisory board that includes two Nobel laureates as well as world-renowned experts in ion channel signaling, seizure disorders and the genesis of pain.
“I am thrilled to join the Rapport team during such an exciting period of growth, and to work with its scientists as well as one of the most esteemed groups of scientific advisors in the biotechnology community,” said Dr. Kelleher. “Rapport is pursuing a unique approach that exploits novel molecular insights with the goal of targeting ion channel receptors with unprecedented precision. I look forward to contributing to the success of a team that possesses such a deep determination to change the lives of patients living with neurological diseases.”
“Rapport is an exciting company because it has the potential to meaningfully change the lives of patients with neurological diseases,” said Dr. Healy. “I am eager to support Rapport as an investor and board member as the team continues to progress its programs in the clinic and extend what is possible in precision neuromedicine.”
About the New Board Members
Dr. Kelleher is an Associate Neurologist at Massachusetts General Hospital, where his laboratory studies the molecular and cellular mechanisms underlying cognitive disorders and his clinical practice focuses on neurodegenerative disorders. He currently serves on the boards of Arkuda Therapeutics, BiVACOR, Expansion Therapeutics, Garuda Therapeutics, and GC Therapeutics as Director, and Chroma Therapeutics, Graviton, Interius BioTherapeutics, and Umoja Biopharma as Observer. Dr. Kelleher received his M.D. and Ph.D. from Stanford University.
Dr. Healy currently serves on the boards of ArriVent, Atsena, Bolt (BOLT), Karuna (KRTX), Natera (NTRA), and Y-mAbs (YMAB). Over the course of his twenty-three year career at Sofinnova, twenty-two of his investments have gone public and twelve have been acquired. He previously served on the boards of the Executive Committee at UC Berkeley, the National Venture Capital Association (NVCA) and the Biotechnology Innovation Organization (BIO). Dr. Healy received his M.D. and Ph.D. from Stanford University.
About Rapport (www.rapportrx.com)
Rapport pursues precision neuromedicine in an effort to give patients better alternatives to current treatments for neurological diseases, which often come with reduced efficacy and side effects that lead to suboptimal dosing, noncompliance and discontinuation. By more precisely targeting the neural circuits and cell types where diseases originate, Rapport’s approach has the potential to reduce the unwanted drug-target interactions that lead to these issues. The company’s platform, built and refined over the past decade by its founding scientific team, achieves precision through the discovery and targeting of receptor-associated proteins, or RAPs, which display regional or neural circuit-specific expression. The company’s first program, designed to treat seizure disorders in patients whose condition is resistant to current treatments, is in Phase 1 clinical studies.
