Press Release
December 2, 2016

Cerevance Launches in US and UK with $36 Million Financing from Lightstone Ventures and Takeda Pharmaceutical

A Goodwin cross-border team represented the neuroscience company Cerevance in its launch by Lightstone Ventures and Takeda Pharmaceutical. Cerevance will focus on discovering and developing novel therapeutics for neurological and psychiatric disorders. Cerevance is funded with $36 million that includes a $21.5 million Series A financing investment from Takeda and Lightstone Ventures, with each joining Cerevance’s board of directors.

Cerevance will have sites in both Massachusetts and the United Kingdom. Takeda has provided a 25-person neuroscience research team from its Cambridge, United Kingdom site, including industry veterans, fully equipped laboratory space, and licenses to a portfolio of preclinical and clinical stage drug programs. Further, Cerevance will use a new technology in-licensed from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute laboratory of Nathaniel Heintz, Ph.D. at the Rockefeller University.

The Goodwin Boston team was led by partners Kingsley Taft and Dan Karelitz and associate Noelle Dubiansky. The Goodwin London team was led by partner Richard Lever and associates Michael Miranda and Alastair Slater.

For more details, please read the press release.