Lusaris Therapeutics launches with $60M to advance novel treatments for TRD, other neuro disorders
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Lusaris Therapeutics announced its launch with $60 million in Series A financing to advance LSR-1019, a sublingual formulation of 5-MeO-DMT for patients with treatment-resistant depression and other severe neuropsychiatric disorders.
Existing clinical data suggest that 5-MeO-DMT has the potential to offer best-in-class efficacy in people with TRD. Serotonergic neuroplastogens have been shown to induce favorable structural and functional neural plasticity, resulting in rapid and dramatic improvement in patients with TRD, the company said in a press release.
“Major depressive disorder is a severe, debilitating, and inadequately treated disease resulting in millions of patients progressing to TRD,” Andrew Levin, MD, PhD, interim CEO of Lusaris, and partner and managing director at RA Capital, which incubated Lusaris and led the financing, said in the release. “Psychoplastogens have emerged as a promising treatment approach supported by compelling scientific evidence in patients with TRD and other severe neuropsychiatric conditions.”
Orally administered 5-MeO-DMT is pharmacologically inactive due to rapid metabolism by enzymes in the gut and liver, per the release. LSR-1019 is a proprietary sublingual tablet formulation of 5-MeO-DMT that dissolves under the tongue within seconds and is absorbed without the need for water. This approach is scalable, eliminates the need for burdensome drug delivery systems, simplifies administration, and offers the potential for more consistent exposure and more predictable therapeutic benefit in patients, the company said in the release.
Lusaris said it expects phase 1 clinical studies of LSR-1019 to commence by the end of 2022, with topline data expected to become available mid-year 2023.
“We aim to develop best-in-class neurotherapeutics that have the potential to reach more patients in need by decreasing the treatment burden on both patients and physicians,” Neil Buckley, Lusaris chief operating officer, said in the release.