Shanghai-based Tenacia Biotechnology is making a $308 million biobucks move for Rapport Therapeutics’ leading asset focused on focal onset seizures (FOS) and primary generalized tonic-clonic seizures, securing rights to develop and commercialize the candidate in greater China.
The deal is worth $20 million upfront as well as up to $308 million in potential development and commercial milestones and other payments, and mid-single-digit to mid-teens tiered royalties. The pact centers on Boston-based Rapport’s RAP-219 asset.
That candidate is a potential first-in-class TARPγ8-specific AMPA receptor negative allosteric modulator. RAP-219’s multiple indications, including focal epilepsy and bipolar acute mania and as an anti-seizure medication, are at various stages of development. The March 9 release said Rapport will retain the rights outside of China.
Last September, Rapport announced a statistically significant reduction in long episodes of FOS in a phase 2a trial in patients with drug-resistant FOS. The trial also produced a statistically significant and clinically meaningful reduction in clinical seizures compared to baseline, sending the company’s stock up 157% at the time.
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Global registrational trials of RAP-219 are on the way for patients with FOS with a phase 3 program expected to launch in the second quarter that will also include phase 3 trial sites in China led by Tenacia.
Rapport CEO Abraham N. Ceesay noted Tenacia’s network of Chinese investigators could help accelerate RAP-219’s development and increase patient access to the therapy, according to the release.
Xiaoxiang Chen, M.D., Tenacia’s CEO, described RAP-219 as “a highly differentiated and promising potential therapy” with the potential to address the significant unmet need for novel epilepsy and bipolar disorder treatments in China.
Venture firm Third Rock spun out Rapport when it announced a $122 million IPO back in 2024, but RAP-219’s development hit a speed bump when the FDA placed a hold on the phase 2a trial in late 2024 to require changes to the study. That hold was lifted in December last year. Rapport was up 6% in early trading Monday morning on the news.