Money will also be used to conduct preclinical studies on candidate for stimulant addiction and epilepsy.
Catalyst Pharmaceutical will sell 3.97 million shares of its common stock at $1.00 per share pursuant to a registered direct offering representing gross proceeds of $3.97 million. The offering is expected to close on or about October 6.
Catalyst intends to use the proceeds from the offering to fund certain clinical studies of CPP-109 for the treatment of cocaine addiction, complete one or more nonclinical studies related to compounds recently licensed as part of its deal with Northwestern University, and for general corporate purposes.
The firm’s focus on substance abuse and obsessive-compulsive disorder is based on exclusive worldwide licenses for nine U.S. patents from Brookhaven National Laboratory relating to vigabatrin. Catalyst also has rights to Brookhaven’s vigabatrin-related foreign patents or patent applications in more than 30 countries. Its initial candidate based on vigabatrin is CPP-109, which has fast-track status for the treatment of cocaine addiction.
Vigabatrin, also known as gamma vinyl-GABA, is marketed as Sabril® outside North America by sanofi-aventis. The drug is available in tablet and powder forms and used in combination therapy for specific types of epilepsy and alone in the management of infantile spasms called West syndrome.
Catalyst has also recently obtained worldwide rights to a patented drug from Northwestern University. The company intends to pursue its development for indications like stimulant addiction and epilepsy.
