MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif., March 27 /PRNewswire/ -- MAP Pharmaceuticals, Inc., a privately-held biopharmaceutical company focused on developing novel treatments for respiratory and CNS diseases, today announced the closing of its Series D equity financing in the amount of $50 million. The Company recently completed Phase 2 clinical trials for its two lead programs for pediatric asthma and migraine. MAP Pharmaceuticals expects to advance both these programs forward into Phase 3 clinical trials.
A new investor, the D. E. Shaw group, a global investment firm with $29 billion in aggregate investment capital and with a significant healthcare focus, joined all of MAP Pharmaceuticals’ previous investors in the round. Previous investors include the Perseus-Soros Biopharmaceutical Fund; Pequot Ventures, the private equity arm of Pequot Capital Management; Brookside Capital, an affiliate of Bain Capital; Bay City Capital; and Skyline Ventures.
“We raised this round shortly after receiving positive Phase 2 clinical trial results for both of our lead programs,” said Timothy S. Nelson, Chief Executive Officer of MAP Pharmaceuticals. “Our goal is to enhance the therapeutic potential of existing drugs with known safety and efficacy profiles by applying our proprietary technologies to provide differentiated benefits including improved safety, efficacy and compliance. We expect to use the proceeds from this financing to advance our two lead programs into Phase 3 clinical trials and to continue to develop further pipeline candidates.”
MAP Pharmaceuticals’ two lead product candidates are: * Unit Dose Budesonide (UDB): UDB is a novel submicron formulation of budesonide which is being developed for the potential treatment of children with asthma. Budesonide is the active ingredient in an existing branded nebulized steroid for pediatric asthma patients selling more than $750 million per year. UDB is designed to deliver a proprietary formulation of a low dose of budesonide in short nebulization times. The Company recently announced positive Phase 2 clinical data for UDB which met its primary efficacy endpoints. While not a head-to-head study, the mean nebulization time for UDB using the same nebulizer was shown to be substantially less than the published nebulization time of the currently marketed nebulizer product. * Tempo(TM) Migraine: Tempo Migraine is an inhaled formulation of dihydroergotamine (DHE) in the Company’s proprietary Tempo(TM) Inhaler platform, which is being developed for the potential treatment of migraine. The migraine market currently generates sales of over $4 billion. DHE has been used for 60 years as an injectable or more recently in an intranasal formulation. Although DHE is effective, both of these formulations have drawbacks for patient self-administration. The Company recently reported positive Phase 2 clinical data for its Tempo Migraine drug candidate which met its primary endpoint, and demonstrated pain relief in as fast as ten minutes.
In addition to these two lead candidates, the Company’s pipeline includes several development candidates that use MAP Pharmaceuticals’ proprietary Tempo(TM) Platform and other technologies for pulmonary drug delivery. MAP Pharmaceuticals retains worldwide commercialization rights to all of its products.
About MAP Pharmaceuticals
Located in Mountain View, California, MAP Pharmaceuticals, Inc. is a privately-held biopharmaceutical company focused on developing novel treatments for respiratory and CNS diseases. The Company has completed Phase 2 clinical trials in two development programs: a proprietary formulation of nebulized budesonide for the potential treatment of children with asthma, and a proprietary formulation of inhaled dihydroergotamine for the potential treatment of migraine. Additional information about MAP Pharmaceuticals can be found at http://www.mappharma.com.
MAP Pharmaceuticals, Inc.
CONTACT: Lisa Johnson of MAP Pharmaceuticals, Inc., +1-650-386-3122,ljohnson@mappharma.com
Web site: http://www.mappharma.com//
