A pair of Sage Therapeutics veterans has launched a neurology-focused startup armed with $106 million and a clinical-stage pipeline of assets licensed from Eisai and Hansoh Pharmaceutical.
Heading up the pipeline for the newly launched Tortugas Neuroscience is TRTL-107, a D2/D3 partial agonist and 5-HT2A antagonist licensed from China’s Hansoh, and is being evaluated for schizophrenia. The other drug licensed from Hansoh is a GABA receptor-positive allosteric modulator aimed at treating tinnitus.
The two therapies licensed from Japan’s Eisai are a GAT-1 inhibitor for focal epilepsy and a PDE9 inhibitor for reversible encephalopathies. All four of the drugs are in phase 2 development, according to the company’s pipeline, meaning Tortugas has burst onto the scene with a relatively mature portfolio of potential medicines.
The Framingham, Massachusetts-based biotech’s strategy is to focus on developing “medicines with clear regulatory paths to approval.” Specifically, Tortugas has opted for small molecules with “derisked mechanisms of action” that can be developed as once-daily, oral formulations for “large and well-defined indications,” according to an April 21 release.
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The company is headed up by a pair of Sage veterans in the form of CEO Jeff Jonas, M.D., and Head of R&D Al Robichaud, Ph.D.
“We believe each of our programs are well-positioned for differentiation in the marketplace,” Jonas said in the release.
“Tortugas curated its pipeline for innovative therapeutics that have high potential for clinical differentiation and of reaching their target patient markets,” added Jonas, a former CEO of Sage who is also a director of Cure Ventures.
Cure is a founding investor of Tortugas, having led a seed round and co-led on a series A alongside The Column Group and AN Venture Partners. Those combined rounds total $106 million, with the top spending priority being the completion of phase 2 trials for the schizophrenia and tinnitus assets.
The company’s name—the Spanish word for tortoises—reflects the biotech’s approach to neuroscience drug development that “combines enduring patience with precise, purposeful momentum,” according to its website.
The schizophrenia space was shaken up in 2024 when Bristol Myers Squibb’s Cobenfy secured regulatory approval, boasting the first new mechanism of action in the space in decades. The Big Pharma paid $14 billion for Karuna Therapeutics to get its hands on the non-dopaminergic antipsychotic med. More recently, Maplight went public via a $250 million IPO to fund its own potential rival to Cobenfy.
