Oct. 30 Quick Takes: VCs pile in for MapLight’s $225M series C

Novo Holdings, 5AM Ventures and Cowen Healthcare Investments are among the investors in a new $225 million series C round for MapLight Therapeutics Inc., a start-up advancing therapeutics for neuropsychiatric and neurological disorders. The company intends to start Phase II testing next year of ML-007C-MA, which combines a M1/M4 muscarinic agonist with a peripheral muscarinic antagonist, to treat schizophrenia and Alzheimer’s disease psychosis. The therapy could compete with KarXT from Karuna Therapeutics Inc. (NASDAQ:KRTX), which has been submitted for regulatory approval. MapLight is also advancing 5-HT receptor antagonist ML-004 to treat dyskinesia.

Shares of Deciphera Pharmaceuticals Inc. (NASDAQ:DCPH) were up 23% on Monday after the company said vimseltinib met the primary endpoint in the Phase III MOTION trial to treat tenosynovial giant cell tumor. The small molecule selective-switch control kinase inhibitor of CSF1R led to an objective response rate of 40%, compared with zero responses for placebo (p<0.0001) at week 25. Deciphera said it will seek approval from regulatory agencies worldwide...