HMNC Brain Health Secures $50 Million Series B Financing and European Partnership with MEDICE for Precision Psychiatry Pipeline

HMNC Brain Health (search)Search term, a clinical-stage neuroscience company headquartered in Munich, Germany, announced the successful $50 million first closing of its Series B financing round, alongside a strategic licensing agreement with MEDICE – The Health Family (search)Search term for European commercialization of its lead ketamine candidate. The financing, led by MEDICE with continued participation from existing investor The Maschmeyer Group (search)Search term, marks a significant milestone in the company's nearly decade-long pursuit of precision psychiatry.

Proceeds from the round will support late-stage clinical development of HMNC's neuroscience portfolio, specifically Phase 3-readiness activities for Ketabon (KET01) (search)Search drug and Nelivabon (BH-200) (search)Search drug. Both programs remain investigational and are not yet approved by regulatory authorities.

Ketabon: A Differentiated Oral Ketamine Approach

Ketabon (KET01) (search)Search drug is an oral prolonged-release ketamine formulation being developed for treatment-resistant depression (search)Search disease (TRD). The program is structured as a joint venture between HMNC Brain Health (search)Search term and Develco Pharma (search)Search term, designed as a differentiated and scalable treatment option for outpatient and at-home use.

Phase 2 studies have demonstrated rapid antidepressant effects with reduced dissociative side effects compared to existing ketamine-based therapies. However, the development path has not been without challenges. When Phase II results were reported in 2023, KET01 showed significant improvements in depressive symptoms within days and generated substantially fewer dissociative effects than established ketamine or esketamine treatments, but the study failed to achieve statistical significance on its primary endpoint after 21 days compared with placebo.

As a result, the timeline has extended beyond initial projections. While HMNC had previously signaled that a Phase III trial was on the horizon as recently as 2025, the company is now describing its activities as "Phase III readiness" as of mid-2026.

Under the terms of the licensing agreement, MEDICE has secured exclusive European commercialization rights for KET01. HMNC and its affiliates are eligible to receive tiered double-digit royalties on net sales and significant success-based commercial milestone payments.

Nelivabon: Precision Psychiatry in Practice

Nelivabon (BH-200) (search)Search drug is a first-in-class oral vasopressin V1b receptor (search)Search target antagonist being developed as a biomarker-guided precision therapy for biologically defined depressive disorders. The program arguably reflects HMNC's original precision psychiatry vision most closely, using a proprietary genetic patient stratification approach to identify patients most likely to benefit from treatment.

The program has generated encouraging Phase 2b results in the OLIVE study, and HMNC is also evaluating the potential expansion of the program into additional neuroscience indications.

Strategic Rationale and Leadership Commentary

Dr. Maximilian Doebler, Managing Director & Chief Business Officer of HMNC, stated: "Securing this financing alongside a strategic partner like MEDICE validates our scientific approach and our broader vision of building a next-generation neuroscience company. MEDICE brings the expertise and commercial infrastructure to help bring KET01 to patients at scale, and we are excited to partner with such an experienced and highly regarded team."

Dr. Dr. Jessica Burgstaller, VP Strategy & Corporate Development at HMNC, added: "This partnership is an important step toward bringing our scientific insights closer to patients. Seeing years of research translate into meaningful new treatment options for patients further strengthens our conviction that precision neuroscience can reshape mental health treatment."

From MEDICE's perspective, Dr. med. Katja Pütter-Ammer, Managing Partner of MEDICE, commented: "Mental health is at the heart of what MEDICE does, and Ketabon represents a compelling opportunity to expand our presence in depression treatment with a differentiated approach. We are also excited by the potential of HMNC's biomarker-guided precision portfolio, including Nelivabon, which reflects where we believe the field is heading."

A Changing Landscape for Psychiatric Drug Development

The financing comes amid a broader resurgence of interest in psychiatric drug development. For much of the past decade, many large pharmaceutical companies scaled back or abandoned neuroscience programs after repeated clinical failures. Yet demand for mental health treatments continues to rise, and regulators, investors, and industry players have become increasingly interested in novel approaches including ketamine derivatives, psychedelic compounds, and biomarker-guided therapies.

MEDICE, a third-generation family-run pharmaceutical company operating for over 75 years, is a market leader in the ADHD segment in several European countries and brings established commercial infrastructure in neuropsychiatry. The connection between the two companies reportedly emerged through Munich's biotech investment ecosystem, including networking around innovation events hosted by the Innovation and Start-up Centre for Biotechnology (IZB) and HTGF.

For HMNC, which first attracted wider attention nearly ten years ago with backing from prominent German psychiatrist and neuroscientist Florian Holsboer and entrepreneur Carsten Maschmeyer, the financing represents an important waypoint. After nearly a decade of scientific ambition, the company must now demonstrate that its precision psychiatry concepts can ultimately become approved medicines.