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Developing novel treatments for patients suffering from seizures, depression, and other neuropsychiatric disorders
Chris Cashman is Chairman and CEO of Marinus Pharmaceuticals. As a clinical stage biopharmaceutical company, Marinus Pharmaceuticals is dedicated to improving the lives of people suffering from neuropsychiatric disorders such as seizures and depression. To meet the needs of these patients, the company has developed a ganaxolone, a neurosteroid that acts on anti-seizure and anti-anxiety receptors in the brain. The drug is currently being evaluated in clinical trials for the treatment of pediatric genetic orphan epilepsies, behaviors in Fragile X syndrome, and status epilepticus.
EDWIN WARFIELD: Pharmaceutical development can take a long time. Where is Ganaxolone, Marnius’ flagship drug, currently in the process?
CHRIS CASHMAN: At this point there’s been probably, just on the Marinus front—and there was work done on this compound prior to Marinus—but in Marinus we have about a $140 million invested into the drug, and we’re not there yet—we’ve got a lot of work to do from here on out—but I’d say, loosely, by the time we get to market, there will probably be, collectively, about a quarter of a billion dollars invested in the drug, which I think to a certain disease areas sounds like a lot, but in the full spectrum of drug development is actually pretty reasonable for a neuro drug like Ganaxolone. We tried to squeeze our dollars tight, tried to do the right work, and I think as a general rule, the company has been very resource efficient here in terms of getting the work done. That's why it is important to pick the right indication and really put the drug in a position where it can work and work well, and in a sense, look at that risk reward basis and just make sure you are making good decisions on where you place the drug, where it’s got a good chance to really improve the lives of patients and meet the needs of the FDA to get the drug approved.
Q. Can you tell us about taking the company public?
A. The way we traversed it was we started that 2B study with the $20 million of capital, and then in the spring of 2013, the public markets started to open up. I got a call from one of my board members, Anand Mehra from Sofinnova… Let me just take a step back: what I told the board is when we did the $20 million is, “Look, we're going to need to go out and raise probably $50 million the next round and that is going to require a public raise, and I’m probably not your guy. I am not your guy to run a public company.” I worked for a public company, but I have never taken a company public and I felt I didn't have the skills or, at that point, the interest to do it. We had a conversation around that and they said, “Okay, let’s go. Let’s keep things moving and we will cross that bridge when we come to it.”
In the spring of 2013, the public markets opened up. I get a call from Anand, and he says, “Chris, you see what is going on here, don't you?” And I said, “yes, Anand, I see exactly what you see.” He pointed to benchmarks there and said, “Look, we’re further advanced than these other companies that are getting out and getting good valuations raising a decent amount of capital. We really need to look into the possibility of taking the company public.” I said, “You’re right. We do need to.” And so what I agreed to do is jump on a train to New York, visit with some bankers, and tell them the Marinus story—where we were, where we’re going—and get their feedback as to whether they think it would possible to do an IPO with Marinus.
Long story short: a banker, Mark Dempster from Stifel, said, “Chris, I think you’ve got the right story and the right set of assets and plans to do a public offering.” So, in the fall of ‘13, we decided that we wanted to take the public route. That led me to a gentleman by the name of Ed Smith, because I didn't have any experience taking a company public and Ed had worked for public companies and had taken a company public, and I had the good fortune of teaming up with Ed. The two of us, after Thanksgiving in 2013, started the process of taking Marinus public. We did it with some test-the-water meetings, we went out and visited with some deep pocketed public investors, and then Stifel used that feedback to help us put together the story for the IPO. We ended up being successful and taking the company public in July of ‘14.
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