Civitas Therapeutics, Inc., a Chelsea, Mass.-based biopharmaceutical company with a lead program in Parkinson’s disease, completed a $38m Series B financing.
The round was led by Bay City Capital with participation from new investors RA Capital and another undisclosed blue chip public investment fund and all existing investors Alkermes plc, Canaan Partners, Fountain Healthcare Partners, and Longitude Capital. As part of this financing, Rajeev Shah, Partner at RA Capital, and Rob Hopfner, Partner at Bay City Capital, will join Civitas’ Board of Directors.
The company intends to use the funds for late stage clinical development of its lead program, CVT-301, an inhaled formulation of levodopa (L-dopa) being developed for the relief from debilitating motor fluctuations (OFF episodes) associated with Parkinson’s disease as well as to explore additional opportunities to leverage its ARCUS® platform for other disease states.
Led by Glenn Batchelder, Chief Executive Officer and Co-founder, Civitas recently initiated a Phase 2b clinical study to evaluate the efficacy and safety of CVT-301, self-administered by patients, in treating emergent OFF episodes during one month of continued use. It will report preliminary data from this study in the first half of 2014.