Rapport Therapeutics, conceived through a partnership between Third Rock Ventures and J&J's Janssen Neuroscience, announced this week that it would be launching with $100 million for the discovery and development of neurological precision therapies.
The Massachusetts clinical-stage biotech has developed a proprietary novel platform which uses receptor-associated proteins (or RAPs) that allow for the identification of precision, targeted small molecule drug for the treatment of neurological disorders.
RAPs provide unprecedented precision since they spot specific neuroanatomical regions underlying the symptoms expressed by neurological disorders, in contrast to current standard of care treatments which act on targets throughout the neurological system.
Rapport’s leadership team and Board of Directors include industry experts with experience at companies like J&J, Zoegeniz, Eli Lilly, Karuna, Incyte, and Bristol Myers Squibb. Notably, the company’s founder and CEO David Bredt headed Janssen’s Neuroscience Discovery and Biomarker groups and was the site head for Janssen’s R&D at the company’s facility in La Jolla. Before Janssen, Brett led a similar department at Eli Lilly and delivered three-to-four candidates a year.
The company’s lead program is currently in phase 1 studies to treat drug-resistant seizure disorders.