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PureTech’s Karuna Gets Another $68m For Re-engineered Lilly CNS Candidate

 
• By Eleanor Malone

Karuna Therapeutics plans to expand its development program for lead candidate KarXT beyond its current Phase II trial in schizophrenia. The series B financing follows a $42m series A in 2018.

Phoenix
Can xanomeline rise from the ashes? • Source: Shutterstock

Karuna Therapeutics Inc. has raised $68m in a series B round led by ARCH Venture Partners. The firm, an affiliate of PureTech Health PLC, was set up to revive development of the muscarinic acetylcholine receptor agonist xanomeline, formerly under development by Eli Lilly & Co. but discontinued because of its side effects.

Karuna’s KarXT is a co-formulation of xanomeline with the peripherally acting muscarinic antagonist trospium chloride. The purpose of the combination is to create a treatment that harnesses xanomeline’s previously demonstrated therapeutic effects but blunts its peripheral side effects

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• By Mandy Jackson

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