Alan G. Walton of Oxford Bioscience Partners Appointed to ACADIA's Board
of Directors
SAN DIEGO, CA, and COPENHAGEN, DK, March 28, 2003 - ACADIA Pharmaceuticals
announced today that it has completed a $25 million private placement of its
preferred stock. The financing round was led by Oxford Bioscience Partners of
Westport Connecticut, and included investments from OrbiMed Advisors LLC, Federated
Kaufmann Fund, LD Pensions, Hambrecht & Quist Capital Management LLC, ABN
AMRO Ventures, Carnegie Fund II Biotechbridge, and Dansk Kapitalanlæg
Aktieselskab. ACADIA also announced that Alan G. Walton, Senior General Partner
of 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 outstanding
syndicate of investors," said Uli Hacksell, Ph.D., ACADIA's Chief Executive
Officer. "We are pleased to have attracted investors of the highest caliber,
and are grateful for the continuing support from our international investor
base that has been so instrumental in ACADIA's success. ACADIA is now well positioned
to accelerate the clinical development of our advanced drug candidates, and
to fully exploit the exciting portfolio of drug discovery assets generated by
our proprietary platform. We are also very fortunate to be able to tap into
the unique expertise and guidance of Alan Walton as ACADIA embarks on this exciting
new 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 poised
to emerge as one of the major players," said Alan G. Walton, Ph.D., D.Sc.,
Senior General Partner of Oxford Bioscience Partners. "ACADIA's proprietary
discovery platform encompasses a unique blend of biological and chemical assets.
By combining this highly productive platform with an innovative drug discovery
approach and a top-notch team of executives and scientific advisors, ACADIA
is well positioned to deliver a new generation of improved therapies, which
address some of the largest areas of unmet medical need." Dr. Walton joined
Oxford 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 board
of Alexandria Real Estate Equities, Inc. (NYSE: ARE), Research!America, and
is Chairman of Avalon Pharmaceuticals, Psychiatric Genomics, Endogeny Bio Corporation
and Asterand, Inc.
ACADIA Pharmaceuticals is a drug discovery and development company that efficiently
discovers novel small molecule drug candidates using its proprietary chemical-genomics
platform. ACADIA has successfully applied its platform to generate a broad discovery
pipeline directed at large unmet medical needs including Parkinson's disease,
chronic pain, psychosis, and glaucoma. Two of ACADIA's drug candidates have
been successfully advanced from initial discovery to clinical development, and
several additional programs are in late-stage preclinical testing. ACADIA's
corporate headquarters as well as its genomics and biological research facilities
are located in San Diego, California and its chemistry research facilities are
located in Copenhagen, Denmark.
Oxford Bioscience Partners (OBP) is a life science venture capital firm that
provides equity financing and management assistance to entrepreneurial-driven
companies in the bioscience and healthcare industries. The General Partners
of OBP currently manage venture funds with combined committed capital of more
than $800 million. Additionally, the General Partners, collectively, have served
on the Board of Directors of more than 100 biotechnology and healthcare companies
and have assumed the position of Chairman or President for more than 20 bioscience
concerns. They have extensive operating management experience in the U.S. and
abroad and have played a key role in the founding of a number of successful
bioscience ventures.
Contacts:
ACADIA Pharmaceuticals
Uli Hacksell, Ph.D., CEO
Thomas H. Aasen, Chief Financial Officer
+1 858 558 2871