Chelsea, MA - July 12, 2011 – Civitas Therapeutics, Inc., a privately held biopharmaceutical company focused on developing transformative pulmonary delivery therapies, announced today that it has secured $5 million of financing from Fountain Healthcare Partners. This additional capital will be primarily used to accelerate Civitas’ lead therapeutic program for Parkinson’s disease as well as to begin advancing additional drug development programs.
“We are excited to add Fountain Healthcare Partners as an investor with their extensive drug delivery technology experience and global industry expertise,” said Glenn Batchelder, Chief Executive Officer of Civitas. “The additional capital will allow us to more rapidly advance this important therapy for Parkinson’s patients.”
“We believe Civitas’ validated and highly differentiated pulmonary delivery technology represents a unique platform to develop transformative therapies for a number of unmet medical needs, currently un- addressable with existing platforms. The company’s initial Parkinson’s program is a prime example of this potential.” said Aidan King, Founding and Managing Partner of Fountain Healthcare. “The remarkable progress made by the company in its initial six months of operation is testament to the quality of the Civitas team and augers well for their ability to deliver these products to the market place.”
Aidan King will join Glenn Batchelder, David Hirsch of Longitude Capital, Blair Jackson of Alkermes, and Tim Shannon of Canaan Partners on the Board of Directors for Civitas.
About Civitas Therapeutics
Civitas is a privately held pharmaceutical company focused on developing products with a clinically proven dry powder pulmonary delivery platform. The proprietary dry powder and device combination is unique in its ability to deliver a large, precise dose independent of inspiratory flow rate from a simple, passive device. The technology has successfully delivered more than one million doses to patients and the manufacturing technology has been scaled to accommodate a significant commercial launch. The lead program is for Parkinson’s disease with clinical proof of concept anticipated to be complete in 2012. Additional programs encompass pulmonary disease, allergy, and pain.
Civitas licensed and purchased the technology and assets from Alkermes which includes a large IP estate, a set of development stage pipeline assets, the specialized pulmonary equipment and the commercial scale GMP manufacturing facility. Civitas’ investors are Canaan Partners, Fountain Healthcare Partners, Longitude Capital, and Alkermes.
For additional information contact:
Stephanie Gillis
sgillis@civitastherapeutics.com
Website
http://www.civitastherapeutics.com