Framingham startup Tortugas Neuroscience said Tuesday it has raised $106 million to push a portfolio of midstage brain‑drug candidates toward later clinical testing. The company, led by former Sage Therapeutics executives Jeff Jonas and Al Robichaud, plans to use the cash to complete Phase 2 trials for two lead programs and to keep a four‑program pipeline moving forward. Tortugas says it is zeroing in on small‑molecule, once‑daily oral medicines with “derisked” mechanisms aimed at large, well‑defined central nervous system indications.
Funding and investors
The combined Seed and Series A financings were led by Cure Ventures, with The Column Group and AN Venture Partners co‑leading the Series A, bringing total new capital to $106 million, according to a company press release via Business Wire. The release says Cure Ventures led the seed round and will co‑lead the Series A, and that the top spending priority is finishing Phase 2 studies for the schizophrenia and tinnitus assets.
Clinical pipeline and licensed assets
Tortugas assembled its clinical‑stage portfolio by in‑licensing four small‑molecule new chemical entities from Eisai and Jiangsu Hansoh Pharmaceutical Group, all at or near Phase 2, as reported by FierceBiotech. FierceBiotech names one program, TRTL‑107, as a D2/D3 partial agonist and 5‑HT2A antagonist being developed for schizophrenia and notes a Hansoh‑origin GABA positive allosteric modulator aimed at tinnitus; the company also picked up Eisai programs targeting focal epilepsy and reversible encephalopathies.
Leadership and strategy
Tortugas is led by CEO Jeff Jonas, M.D., and President and Head of R&D Al Robichaud, Ph.D., both veterans of Sage Therapeutics, the press release notes. Jonas said, “We believe each of our programs are well‑positioned for differentiation in the marketplace,” and the startup highlights medicines with clear regulatory pathways and once‑daily oral dosing as strategic priorities, per Business Wire.
Why the market is watching
Investors have shown renewed appetite for novel psychiatric drugs after the recent approval and commercial interest around KarXT (now marketed as Cobenfy), which demonstrated that new mechanisms can attract big deals and acquisitions, CNBC reported. Tortugas is betting that midstage, derisked small molecules can be advanced efficiently with focused capital and experienced operators.
What comes next
The company says the new capital will bankroll the completion of Phase 2 programs for its schizophrenia and tinnitus candidates and support broader development across the four‑program portfolio. With a Framingham dateline on its launch release, Tortugas is planting its flag in the Boston‑area biotech ecosystem as it recruits clinical and regulatory partners for U.S. trials and gears up for key development milestones over the next 12 to 24 months.
