WATERTOWN, Mass.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Neumora Therapeutics, Inc. (Neumora), a clinical-stage biotechnology company pioneering precision medicines for brain diseases through the integration of data science and neuroscience, announced its launch today. Neumora was founded as a response to the lack of targeted, effective medicines for brain diseases and the high failure rate that has plagued neuroscience drug development for decades.
Recent scientific and technological advancements have revolutionized precision medicines in oncology, and the time is now to develop precision medicines for complex brain diseases, bringing neuroscience drug development into the 21st century.
“Targeted, effective treatments for brain diseases remain elusive, and we founded Neumora to approach drug development in a smarter, more precise way,” said Paul L. Berns, co-founder, chairman and chief executive officer of Neumora. “For many years in oncology, cancers were broadly classified by symptoms and organs. We didn’t know how to target treatments for them, leading to poor outcomes. Through the advancement of data science tools and biopsies, the field progressed to understand that these were diseases driven by biological mechanisms and genetics. The industry learned how to define cancers more precisely, enabling the development of targeted drugs with better treatment outcomes.
Mr. Berns continued, “Similarly, we now have the tools and technologies to redefine brain diseases to transform the development of targeted, effective precision medicines. Neumora is built at scale to pioneer potential best-in-class precision medicines for brain diseases, and we believe that integrating data sciences is the key.”
Redefining Neuroscience R&D
Brain diseases are highly heterogeneous and are caused by multiple, complex disease drivers. However, these diseases are currently classified as broad disorders defined by clinical symptoms rather than genetic and mechanistic subgroups. In drug development, this has led to patient heterogeneity, subjective trial endpoints and a lower likelihood of regulatory approval. Overlooking the multifaceted nature of these diseases has led to the high failure rate in developing targeted, effective medicines.
“We built Neumora to pioneer the future of precision medicines for brain diseases. Traditional neuroscience R&D is constrained by a ‘one-size-fits-all’ treatment approach, often leading to underwhelming efficacy, high placebo response and routine clinical trial failures. Patients deserve better,” said Kristina Burow, co-founder and director of Neumora and managing director at ARCH Venture Partners. “Neumora aims to overcome the historical challenges of neuroscience R&D by targeting enriched patient populations for improved probability of success and better patient outcomes.”
Scalable Precision Data Science Platform to Match the Right Patient Populations to Targeted Therapeutics
To cut through the heterogeneity of neuropsychiatric disorders and neurodegenerative diseases, Neumora’s scalable data science platform is designed to identify and define patient subtypes by mapping the mechanisms that drive brain diseases. Neumora has amassed multiple open-source and proprietary datasets across neuropsychiatric disorders and neurodegenerative diseases. Neumora’s proprietary toolbox of state-of-the-art neural network technologies is built to integrate multiple types of data across genomics, imaging, electroencephalogram (EEG), digital and clinical domains to create Data Biopsy Signatures™ that map the underlying disease mechanisms to Precision Phenotypes™ that identify distinct patient subtypes. Neumora can then match the right patient populations to targeted therapeutics, leading to de-risked clinical trials, increasing the probability of success and improving patient outcomes.
“Instead of the current broad classifications of brain diseases across a wide spectrum of generalized symptoms, Neumora’s approach is driven by an ability to develop and match the right therapeutics to the right patient populations,” said Morgan Sheng, M.D., Ph.D., co-director of the Stanley Center for Psychiatric Research at the Broad Institute. “This approach marks a major advancement in the field of neuroscience and has the potential to truly revolutionize the way we target brain diseases, similar to the way genetic sequencing and new tools have revolutionized the development of precision medicines for cancer over the past decade.”
Building a Robust Pipeline of Potentially Best-in-class Targeted Therapeutics Across Neuropsychiatric Disorders and Neurodegenerative Diseases
Neumora is leveraging its data science platform and deep expertise in neuroscience drug development to advance a broad pipeline of novel product candidates that are matched to specific neuropsychiatric disorders and neurodegenerative diseases. Neumora emerges with a portfolio of eight clinical, preclinical and discovery-stage programs from internal discovery efforts, the acquisitions of multiple private companies and license agreements with Amgen.
Neumora has raised over $500 million, including a $100 million equity investment from Amgen announced separately today. The Company’s Series A financing was led by ARCH Venture Partners, with participation from Alexandria Venture Investments, Altitude Life Science Ventures, Catalio Capital Management, F-Prime Capital, Invus, Logos Capital, Mubadala Capital, Newpath Partners, Polaris Partners, re.Mind Capital (Apeiron), Softbank Vision Fund 2, Surveyor Capital (a Citadel company), Waycross Ventures (Byers Capital) and other undisclosed investors.
Experienced Data Scientists, Neuroscience Drug Developers and Company Builders
Neumora has assembled a world-class team of data scientists, neuroscience drug developers and company builders to integrate data science and neuroscience to revolutionize the treatment of brain diseases.
Neumora’s executive team includes:
- Paul L. Berns, co-founder, chairman and chief executive officer
- Mike Poole, M.D., co-founder and advisor
- Carol Suh, co-founder and vice president, business development
- Lori Lyons-Williams, president and chief operating officer
- Josh Pinto, Ph.D., chief financial officer
- Tamara Tompkins, J.D., general counsel
- John Dunlop, Ph.D., chief scientific officer
- John Reynders, Ph.D., chief data sciences officer
- Jane Tiller, MBChB, FRCPsych, chief medical officer
- Nick Brandon, Ph.D., chief research officer
- Bill Aurora, Pharm.D., chief external affairs officer
- Julie Person, chief people officer
- Lori Houle, senior vice president, quality
Neumora’s board of directors includes:
- Paul L. Berns, chairman, co-founder and chief executive officer, Neumora
- Kristina Burow, co-founder, Neumora and managing director, ARCH Venture Partners
- Matthew K. Fust, former executive vice president and chief financial officer, Onyx Pharmaceuticals
- Maykin Ho, Ph.D., retired partner, Goldman Sachs Group and executive in the life sciences industry
- Robert Nelsen, co-founder, Neumora and co-founder and managing director, ARCH Venture Partners
- Stacie Weninger, Ph.D., founding board member, Neumora and president, F-Prime Biomedical Research Initiative, an affiliate of F‑Prime Capital
Neumora has also established its scientific advisory board (SAB) and technical advisory board (TAB) members, including scientific co-founders Morgan Sheng, M.D., Ph.D., co-director of the Stanley Center for Psychiatric Research at the Broad Institute and Richard Huganir, Ph.D., professor of neuroscience at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. Members of the SAB and TAB may be viewed here.
About Neumora
Neumora Therapeutics, Inc. is a clinical-stage biotechnology company pioneering precision medicines for brain diseases through the integration of data science and neuroscience. Neumora is redefining neuroscience research and development with a data-driven precision neuroscience platform to cut through brain disease heterogeneity to match the right patient populations to targeted therapeutics. The Company’s precision data science platform integrates multiple data types to define patient subtypes through the development of Data Biopsy Signatures™ and Precision Phenotypes™. Neumora is relentless in its commitment to discovering, developing and commercializing targeted therapies for people living with brain diseases. The Company has operations in the Greater Boston Area and South San Francisco. For additional information, please visit www.neumoratx.com and follow us on Twitter: @NeumoraTx.
