Transcend Therapeutics, a New York-based mental health-focused biotechnology company, raised $40M in Series A funding.
The round was led by Alpha Wave Global and Integrated Investment Partners with participation from Global Founders Capital and Emerald Investment Managers, among others.
The company, which has raised nearly $42M to date, intends to use the funds to launch multiple clinical trials, including a phase II study, with its psychoactive compound.
Founded in 2021 and incubated by early-stage venture studio AlleyCorp, Blake Mandell, Ben Kelmendi, Amanda Jones, and Martin Stogniew, Transcend Therapeutics develops next-generation psychoactive drugs aiming to benefit the more than 50 million Americans who suffer from neuropsychiatric diseases.
Its lead compound, methylone (TSND-201), has short-acting and mild psychological effects, and thus likely requires less clinician time than other psychedelic compounds. Methylone has the potential to be used as an adjunctive treatment to existing pharmacotherapies (e.g. SSRIs), making it better suited to integrate into the existing psychiatric paradigm and healthcare infrastructure.
Transcend Therapeutics already has real-world data for its lead compound, TSND-201, demonstrating responses in patients with PTSD.
The leadership team includes:
- Kevin Ryan, Co-Founder and Chairman of Transcend, and founder and CEO of AlleyCorp, where he was co-founder and chairman of MongoDB, Business Insider, Gilt Groupe, Zola, and also previously served as CEO of DoubleClick;
- Blake Mandell, Co-Founder and CEO of Transcend, has spent most of his career working in venture capital – leading AlleyCorp’s frontier technology practice, where he helped incubate Pearl Health – and prior to that was a consultant at BCG;
- Ben Kelmendi, MD, Co-Founder and Chief Scientific Advisor at Transcend, co-director of the Yale Program for Psychedelic Science and the first scientist to receive federal funding for clinical psychedelic research in more than 50 years;
- Martin Stogniew, PhD, Chief Development Officer at Transcend, who holds 40 patents, has led development at six biotech startups leading to nine New Drug Applications and five biopharma exits valued at more than $3.5 billion; and,
- Amanda Jones, PharmD, Senior Vice President of Clinical Development at Transcend, who most recently led clinical development at Axsome Therapeutics, where she led two compounds from IND to NDA, including the first and only oral NMDA receptor antagonist approved for treating major depressive disorder in adults (Auvelity).
FinSMEs
23/02/2023
