Neumora, founded in 2019 by Arch Venture Partners, L.P. (“Arch”), is a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company dedicated to advancing neuroscience. The company’s mission is to transform drug development in this field by delivering innovative therapies that improve treatment outcomes and quality of life for patients with brain disorders. Neumora’s pipeline includes seven clinical and preclinical programs targeting neuropsychiatric and neurodegenerative diseases.
Navacaprant, Neumora’s lead therapeutic candidate, is a once-daily oral kappa opioid receptor antagonist developed to treat major depressive disorder (“MDD”). The company positions Navacaprant as a novel therapy with the potential to offer meaningful benefits over current standard-of-care treatments, if approved. The drug is designed to target dopamine and reward-processing pathways that influence mood, cognition, motivation, and behavior.
In September 2020, Neumora acquired Navacaprant, along with additional therapeutic candidates, through its acquisition of BlackThorn Therapeutics, Inc. (“BlackThorn”), a privately held biopharmaceutical company. The deal involved an initial payment of $37.4 million, with up to an additional $365 million contingent on achieving specific development and regulatory milestones for Navacaprant.
According to the lawsuit, the Offering Documents contained false and/or misleading statements and/or failed to disclose that: (1) in order for Neumora to justify conducting its Phase Three Program, Neumora was forced to amend BlackThorn’s original Phase Two Trial inclusion criteria to include a patient population with moderate to severe MDD to show that Navacaprant offered a statistically significant improvement in treating MDD; (2) and to that same end, the company also added a prespecified analysis to the Phase Two statistical analysis plan, focusing on patients suffering from moderate to severe MDD; and (3) the Phase Two Trials lacked adequate data, particularly in regards to the patient population size and the ratio of male to female patients within the patient population, to be able to accurately predict the results of the KOASTAL-1 study. When the true details entered the market, the lawsuit claims that investors suffered damages.
On November 19, 2025, the Court appointed Victor Otcheretko as Lead Plaintiff and Saxena White P.A. as Co-Lead Counsel.
On January 14, 2026, Lead Plaintiff filed the amended complaint. On March 11, 2026, Defendants filed a motion to dismiss the amended complaint. Lead Plaintiff’s opposition to the motion to dismiss is due by April 22, 2026.
