Cerevance

Cerevance is a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company dedicated to advancing precision treatments for central nervous system (CNS) disorders. The company's core technology is its proprietary Nuclear Enriched Transcript Sort sequencing (NETSseq) platform, which isolates and analyzes specific cell populations from human post-mortem brain tissue samples. By leveraging a vast collection of over 14,000 brain tissue samples spanning various ages, brain regions, and disease states, Cerevance gains unprecedented insights into the gene expression profiles and biological pathways underlying CNS diseases. This enables the identification of novel therapeutic targets that traditional methods like animal models or stem cells cannot uncover.

Cerevance's lead program is CVN424, a first-in-class, non-dopaminergic oral therapy for Parkinson's disease. In March 2023, the company reported positive Phase two data, demonstrating significant dose-dependent reductions in off-time for Parkinson's patients treated with CVN424. Additionally, Cerevance is advancing CVN766, a selective orexin one receptor antagonist, and CVN293, a novel potassium efflux blocker targeting neuroinflammation, for conditions like schizophrenia, Alzheimer's disease, and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS).

In August 2022, Cerevance entered a multi-year strategic collaboration with Merck to leverage its NETSseq platform in identifying novel Alzheimer's disease targets. As part of this deal, Cerevance out-licensed one of its discovery-stage programs to Merck and is eligible to receive up to USD 1.1 billion in milestone payments, along with royalties on future product sales.