Angelini pharma invests 115 million in the US on a molecule to treat epilepsy

Angelini Pharma is strengthening its international leadership in the field of brain health with a $115 million investment in the US. The object is radiprodil, an experimental drug that will offer a potential treatment for children suffering from rare genetic forms of epilepsy and neurodevelopmental disorders.

The subsidiary of the Angelini Industries group has in fact reached a collaboration agreement with the American company Grin Therapeutics for the development and marketing outside the United States, Canada and Mexico of radiprodil, which is currently under study. The American company announced the closing of a Series D financing round, supported by Angelini Pharma and Blackstone Life Sciences. Specifically, with regard to the Italian company, there is a $65 million strategic capital investment and a $50 million upfront payment related to the commercialisation and development of radiprodil. Blackstone Life Sciences, which already supports Grin Therapeutics, contributed $75 million to the Series D financing round.

Jacopo Andreose, ceo of Angelini Pharma, explains that 'the molecule, in phase 2, has shown great efficacy in reducing epileptic seizures and a positive trend in improving the general clinical picture'. This operation, continues Andreose, 'consolidates our position in Europe, where we are present and recognised as a reference for the treatment of both neurological and psychiatric pathologies, which have experienced a significant increase since Covid'. The strategy of the company, which operates in more than 20 European countries and reaches a further 50 countries through distributors, is now to consolidate a more significant presence in the United States.

'We have several highly innovative molecules and we have either global or near-global rights,' says Andreose. This 'portfolio' is the result of several transactions, such as the acquisition of Arvelle Therapeutics, the partnership with JCR Pharmaceuticals and with Cureverse. At the late-stage level, Angelini Pharma's main focus is the expansion of the therapeutic indications for Cenobamate, the epilepsy treatment for which the company has marketing rights for Europe, obtained following the acquisition of Arvelle Therapeutics, a company set up to launch Cenobamate in Europe. Future growth in epilepsy will be driven by new therapeutic indications, including generalised tonic-clonic seizures and paediatric indications. In early-stage development, Angelini Pharma looks to a set of molecules developed in-house and strategic partnerships. In 2023, it entered into a partnership with JCR Pharmaceuticals, a Japanese company with strong biotechnology expertise to develop new biological therapies for the treatment of epilepsy, capable of penetrating the blood-brain barrier. The initial focus is epilepsy, but the platform has broad potential. Finally, the partnership with Cureverse, a Korean spin-off of the Korean Institute of Science and Technology, which is developing small molecules with broad applications in the central nervous system, dates back to 2024.