Our Focus

We are a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company focused on discovering, developing and commercializing oral drugs that target G protein-coupled receptors, or GPCRs, an important class of validated drug targets, in four major therapeutic areas: cardiovascular, central nervous system, inflammatory and metabolic diseases.

Our Research & Development Pipeline

Lorcaserin is our most advanced investigational drug candidate and is intended for weight management. After completing a pivotal Phase 3 clinical trial program for lorcaserin, we submitted a New Drug Application, or NDA, to the FDA, for regulatory approval in December 2009. The FDA issued a Complete Response Letter (CRL) in October 2010, and we are engaged in activities, in collaboration with Eisai, to address the issues raised by the FDA as part of our plan to submit a response to the CRL.

In addition to lorcaserin, we are focused on APD811, an internally discovered, orally available agonist of the prostacyclin receptor intended for the treatment of pulmonary arterial hypertension; APD334, an internally discovered, orally available agonist of the S1P1 receptor intended for the treatment of a number of conditions related to autoimmune diseases; and our research programs on cannabinoid receptor 2 agonists, intended for the treatment of osteoarthritis and pain, and GPR119 agonists intended for the treatment of type 2 diabetes.

Our Strategy

The key elements of our general strategy are as follows:

• Focus on lorcaserin approval and commercialization.  We intend to focus our efforts on seeking approval for lorcaserin in the United States and in select markets outside of the United States. Pending regulatory approvals, we intend to commercialize lorcaserin in the United States under our marketing and supply agreement with Eisai and in other markets independently or with a pharmaceutical company or companies.
• Selectively advance our other lead candidates.  We intend to selectively advance our pipeline of drug candidates independently or through licensing, collaborations or other opportunities.
• Maintain research and development capabilities to advance our pipeline.  Our technologies, our drug discovery infrastructure and the integrated approach to research used by our scientists have allowed us to identify and develop a number of GPCR targets and novel compounds. We expect that these capabilities will play an important role in the research intended to generate data for our planned resubmission of the lorcaserin NDA. We intend to maintain our research and development capabilities to selectively advance our programs and to discover additional drug candidates.

Our drug candidates have not been approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration or any international regulatory agency.