Alan G. Walton of Oxford Bioscience Partners Appointed to ACADIA's Boardof Directors
SAN DIEGO, CA, and COPENHAGEN, DK, March 28, 2003 - ACADIA Pharmaceuticalsannounced today that it has completed a $25 million private placement of itspreferred stock. The financing round was led by Oxford Bioscience Partners ofWestport Connecticut, and included investments from OrbiMed Advisors LLC, FederatedKaufmann Fund, LD Pensions, Hambrecht & Quist Capital Management LLC, ABNAMRO Ventures, Carnegie Fund II Biotechbridge, and Dansk KapitalanlægAktieselskab. ACADIA also announced that Alan G. Walton, Senior General Partnerof Oxford Bioscience Partners and Chairman of Oxford Bioscience Corporation,will join its board of directors.
"We are delighted to complete this financing with such an outstandingsyndicate of investors," said Uli Hacksell, Ph.D., ACADIA's Chief ExecutiveOfficer. "We are pleased to have attracted investors of the highest caliber,and are grateful for the continuing support from our international investorbase that has been so instrumental in ACADIA's success. ACADIA is now well positionedto accelerate the clinical development of our advanced drug candidates, andto fully exploit the exciting portfolio of drug discovery assets generated byour proprietary platform. We are also very fortunate to be able to tap intothe unique expertise and guidance of Alan Walton as ACADIA embarks on this excitingnew stage of its development."
"We have spent considerable time surveying the landscape of later-stage,platform-driven drug discovery companies and I believe that ACADIA is poisedto emerge as one of the major players," said Alan G. Walton, Ph.D., D.Sc.,Senior General Partner of Oxford Bioscience Partners. "ACADIA's proprietarydiscovery platform encompasses a unique blend of biological and chemical assets.By combining this highly productive platform with an innovative drug discoveryapproach and a top-notch team of executives and scientific advisors, ACADIAis well positioned to deliver a new generation of improved therapies, whichaddress some of the largest areas of unmet medical need." Dr. Walton joinedOxford in 1987 and has led Oxford's investment strategy in genomics and biotechnology.His portfolio includes founding investments in Human Genome Sciences, Gene Logic,Genetic Therapy, Exelixis, and Geron. Dr. Walton currently sits on the boardof Alexandria Real Estate Equities, Inc. (NYSE: ARE), Research!America, andis Chairman of Avalon Pharmaceuticals, Psychiatric Genomics, Endogeny Bio Corporationand Asterand, Inc.
ACADIA Pharmaceuticals is a drug discovery and development company that efficientlydiscovers novel small molecule drug candidates using its proprietary chemical-genomicsplatform. ACADIA has successfully applied its platform to generate a broad discoverypipeline directed at large unmet medical needs including Parkinson's disease,chronic pain, psychosis, and glaucoma. Two of ACADIA's drug candidates havebeen successfully advanced from initial discovery to clinical development, andseveral additional programs are in late-stage preclinical testing. ACADIA'scorporate headquarters as well as its genomics and biological research facilitiesare located in San Diego, California and its chemistry research facilities arelocated in Copenhagen, Denmark.
Oxford Bioscience Partners (OBP) is a life science venture capital firm thatprovides equity financing and management assistance to entrepreneurial-drivencompanies in the bioscience and healthcare industries. The General Partnersof OBP currently manage venture funds with combined committed capital of morethan $800 million. Additionally, the General Partners, collectively, have servedon the Board of Directors of more than 100 biotechnology and healthcare companiesand have assumed the position of Chairman or President for more than 20 bioscienceconcerns. They have extensive operating management experience in the U.S. andabroad and have played a key role in the founding of a number of successfulbioscience ventures.
Contacts:
ACADIA Pharmaceuticals
Uli Hacksell, Ph.D., CEO
Thomas H. Aasen, Chief Financial Officer
+1 858 558 2871