Delix Therapeutics announced on November 9 that it has closed an oversubscribed 100 million dollar Series C financing. The round was led by Johnson and Johnson, through its venture arm Johnson and Johnson Innovation, JJDC, and by SV Health Investors’ Dementia Discovery Fund, with participation from existing investors including RA Capital, UC Investments, Artis Ventures and OMX Ventures, and new investors including Adage Capital Management.
The money takes the lead programme, zalsupindole (DLX001), through a Phase IIb proof-of-concept trial in recurrent major depressive disorder, and funds the broader neuroplastogen pipeline across psychiatric, neurological and neurodegenerative diseases. Zalsupindole is an oral compound inspired by 5-MeO-DMT and engineered, the company says, to promote structural and functional repair of synapses without hallucinatory, dissociative, sedative or other psychotomimetic effects, which is what would make at-home dosing possible. Delix expects to start the placebo-controlled Phase II study in the first half of 2027.
The evidence base so far is early. Fierce Biotech reported positive Phase 1b data in major depressive disorder from late 2024 behind the raise, but that study was small and uncontrolled; no controlled efficacy data for a compound of this class in depression yet exist. The Series C therefore prices a hypothesis, that neuroplasticity without the psychedelic experience retains the therapeutic effect, and the 2027 trial is the first real test of it.