Company Description

We are a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company focused on improving the lives of patients suffering from debilitating central nervous system, or CNS, disorders. We were founded by globally recognized leaders in psychiatry and neuroscience research to address the lack of circuit-specific pharmacotherapies available for patients. Our discovery platform holds the potential to fill this void by identifying neural circuits causally linked to disease and targeting those circuits for therapeutic modulation. We believe our deep understanding of these causal links between the modulation of defined neural circuits and the resulting changes in disease-specific behaviors will enable us to develop therapeutics that can deliver efficacy, safety, tolerability and ease-of-use advantages to patients and prescribers. Our lead product candidate, ML-007C-MA, is a fixed-dose combination of an M1/M4 muscarinic agonist, ML-007, co-formulated with a peripherally acting anticholinergic, or PAC, which we are initially developing for the treatment of schizophrenia and Alzheimer’s disease psychosis, or ADP. ML-007C-MA is designed to activate both M1 and M4 muscarinic receptors in the CNS to drive efficacy, while synchronizing the pharmacokinetics of the agonist and antagonist components to mitigate peripheral cholinergic side effects. ML-007 alone, co-administered, or co-formulated with PAC has been evaluated in four Phase 1 trials, with a total of 270 healthy participants enrolled and more than 1,500 doses of ML-007 administered. Based on our clinical and preclinical data, we believe that ML-007C-MA has demonstrated the potential to be a well-tolerated treatment option with convenient dosing, while achieving or exceeding CSF exposures expected to result in improvement across key symptom domains. We are currently conducting ZEPHYR, a Phase 2 trial evaluating ML-007C-MA for the treatment of schizophrenia, and expect topline results in the second half of 2026. We are also conducting VISTA, a Phase 2 trial evaluating ML-007C-MA for the treatment of ADP, and expect topline results in the second half of 2027. There remains a significant unmet need in both schizophrenia and ADP for medicines that can effectively treat the breadth of symptoms while reducing the significant safety and tolerability risks for patients. Schizophrenia is one of the most common psychotic disorders and affects over 20 million people globally, including more than 3 million people in the United States. Schizophrenia remains one of the leading causes of disability and is associated with an increased risk for premature mortality. Atypical antipsychotics represent the current standard of care and primarily exert their therapeutic effects by binding to and inhibiting the activity of dopamine D2 receptors in the brain. These dopaminergic antipsychotics are associated with risk of highly morbid side effects of extra pyramidal symptoms, or EPS, metabolic abnormalities, hyperprolactinemia, QTc prolongation and sedation. Furthermore, these medications are approved by the Food and Drug Administration, or the FDA, only for the treatment of the positive symptoms of schizophrenia and do not address the negative symptoms nor cognitive impairment. Meta-analyses of real-world usage of dopaminergic antipsychotics have shown poor treatment adherence and high discontinuation rates due to lack of efficacy and/or undesirable side effects. ADP represents another significant unmet need, as approximately 40% of the approximately 7 million people in the United States living with Alzheimer’s disease also experience symptoms of psychosis. These symptoms are associated with a worsened prognosis and are predictive of earlier progression to nursing home care, severe dementia and death. There are currently no therapies approved for the treatment of ADP, although there is widespread use of off-label dopaminergic antipsychotics. However, based on a meta-analysis, the efficacy of these medications for ADP was shown to be modest at best. Furthermore, dopaminergic antipsychotics are associated with significant side effects, including EPS, metabolic syndrome, cerebrovascular accidents, falls and increased mortality risk in elderly patients with dementia-related psychosis. We believe targeting muscarinic receptors represents a compelling therapeutic alternative to dopaminergic antipsychotics for the treatment of schizophrenia and ADP. Muscarinic receptors are localized to brain circuits known to be critical for psychosis and cognition, and alterations in muscarinic receptor binding have been observed in post-mortem brain tissue from schizophrenia and Alzheimer’s disease patients. The recent FDA approval of COBENFY, an M1/M4 muscarinic agonist, represents the first product with a novel mechanism approved for the treatment of schizophrenia in decades. Muscarinic receptor targeted approaches have shown improvements in both positive and negative symptoms of schizophrenia, as demonstrated in multiple randomized controlled clinical trials conducted by third parties. Additionally, in these trials and other open-label extension trials, muscarinic agonists were shown not to cause the serious side effects of EPS and metabolic disturbance associated with dopaminergic antipsychotics. However, some of these same clinical trials have also demonstrated a high rate of both pro- and anticholinergic side effects, which we believe are caused by a mismatch of agonist and antagonist exposures in the periphery. To mitigate these cholinergic side effects, certain muscarinic agonists have required inconvenient dosing regimens (frequency, titration and fasting requirements) that are likely to result in patient compliance and adherence challenges. Furthermore, although exploratory analyses in these trials suggested a positive effect on cognition symptoms in patients with baseline cognitive impairment, these analyses were not adequately powered to assess statistical significance. These findings suggest that despite the approval of a first agent within the new muscarinic class, there remains a significant opportunity for improvement across efficacy, safety and tolerability, and ease of use. Based on the results of our recent Phase 1 Study 013, we believe ML-007C-MA has demonstrated the potential to be a well-tolerated treatment option with convenient dosing, while achieving or exceeding CSF exposures expected to result in improvement across key symptom domains. Study 013 evaluated the safety, tolerability and pharmacokinetics, or PK, of ML-007C-MA in healthy adult and elderly participants that were dosed for up to 14 days. ML-007C-MA was generally well tolerated at the doses being evaluated in our ongoing Phase 2 trials. Most treatment-emergent adverse events, or TEAEs, were mild, self-limited and transient in nature. The mean plasma concentration ratio of ML-007 and PAC remained within the target range established to minimize adverse events over the majority of the dosing interval. ML-007C-MA also achieved and maintained cerebrospinal fluid, or CSF, exposures above the anticipated clinically relevant levels with both once- and twice-daily dosing regimens. Based on the PK parameters observed in fasted and fed states, ML-007C-MA will not require administration in a fasted state. Together, the safety and PK observations supported advancing ML-007C-MA to Phase 2 trials in both adult and elderly participants. Our second product candidate, ML-004, is a 5-HT1B/1D agonist that we are developing for the treatment of social communication deficit and/or irritability in autism spectrum disorder, or ASD. Historical clinical development efforts for ASD have been challenging given the biological heterogeneity of symptoms across age, developmental level and sex, and the lack of validated outcome measures. There are currently no FDA-approved therapies for the core symptoms of ASD, social communication deficit and repetitive/restricted behavior. The only two therapies approved for ASD-associated irritability are atypical antipsychotics, which are associated with serious side effects. ML-004 is an immediate-release, or IR, and extended-release, or ER, formulation of zolmitriptan. We are currently conducting IRIS, a Phase 2 trial, to evaluate the efficacy of ML-004 for the improvement of social communication deficits in patients with ASD. Change from baseline in irritability symptoms is a secondary endpoint. We expect to report topline results from this trial in the second half of 2026. Based on the results from the IRIS trial, we intend to explore potential strategies for further development of ML-004. In addition, we are advancing two preclinical programs, ML-021 and ML-009. ML-021 is an M4 antagonist that we are developing for the treatment of motor deficits in Parkinson’s disease. We have conducted multiple preclinical in vitro and in vivo studies using ML-021 and expect to complete investigational new drug application, or IND, -enabling studies for ML-021 in the second half of 2026. ML-009 is a G-protein-coupled receptor 52 positive allosteric modulator, or GPR52 PAM, that we are developing for the treatment of hyperactivity, impulsivity and agitation-related disorders. We have conducted multiple preclinical in vitro and in vivo studies using multiple product candidates and expect to nominate a preclinical candidate to advance to IND-enabling studies in 2026. Our current and future pipeline is supported by our platform, which is built on our deep understanding of neural circuits that perform specific functions in the brain. We leverage our platform technologies to define how the activity of specific neural circuits is causally linked to disease symptoms and then identify druggable targets within those circuits that correct aberrant circuit activity. Utilizing this approach, we are advancing a robust pipeline of product candidates for the treatment of highly prevalent CNS conditions that collectively afflict millions of people and impose substantial disease burden and costs on patients, families, caregivers and society. --- We were incorporated under the laws of the State of Delaware in November 2018 as Alvarado Therapeutics, Inc. In August 2019, we changed our name to MapLight Therapeutics, Inc. Our principal executive offices are located at 800 Chesapeake Drive, Redwood City, California 94063 and our telephone number is (617) 984-6300. Our website address is www.maplightrx.com.