The quiet Boston-area biotech building drugs for the gut's "second brain" - and for the nausea that makes people quit their GLP-1 meds.
There is a class of medicine that has reshaped how the world thinks about weight and diabetes. GLP-1 receptor agonists - semaglutide and its relatives - work remarkably well. There is also a reason a large share of people who start them stop within a year, and it is not a lack of resolve. It is nausea, and often vomiting. Neurogastrx, a biopharmaceutical company based in Woburn, Massachusetts, built much of its recent strategy around that specific, unglamorous problem.
Founded in 2012 by the neurogastroenterologist Pankaj Jay Pasricha and the scientist Cyril De Colle, Neurogastrx set out to develop therapies for gastrointestinal disorders rooted in the enteric nervous system - the dense web of neurons lining the digestive tract, sometimes called the body's "second brain." These are conditions with real prevalence and thin treatment options. The company's lead candidate, NG101, has been developed for gastroparesis, a disorder in which the stomach empties too slowly, and, more recently, for the nausea and vomiting brought on by GLP-1 medicines.
"Nausea and vomiting associated with GLP-1s prevent millions of patients globally from realizing the benefits of this transformative class of medicines."
- Jim O'Mara, President and CEOWhat makes the company worth a closer look is less a single breakthrough than the shape of its bet. Rather than chase an entirely new molecule, Neurogastrx built NG101 as a proprietary mesylate salt of metopimazine - a dopamine D2 receptor antagonist that has been approved and prescribed in France for more than four decades for nausea and vomiting. The design choice that matters most is where the drug does its work: NG101 is described as peripherally acting, engaging the area postrema outside the blood-brain barrier. The intent is to blunt nausea signals without dulling the brain's satiety center, the very mechanism that makes GLP-1 drugs effective for weight loss.
*NG101 Phase 2 results vs. placebo in semaglutide-induced symptoms, presented at ObesityWeek 2025.
In November 2025, Neurogastrx reported Phase 2 results for NG101 in reducing nausea and vomiting induced by the GLP-1 receptor agonist semaglutide. The numbers were statistically significant across several measures - and, importantly, the effect showed up in both how often symptoms occurred and how severe they were.
The study built on positive proof-of-concept data the company had announced a year earlier, in October 2024. NG101 was dosed at 20 mg twice daily over five days in the trial.
A proprietary mesylate salt of metopimazine, a dopamine D2 receptor antagonist with a 40-plus year safety history in France for nausea and vomiting.
Works on the area postrema outside the blood-brain barrier - aiming to stop nausea without CNS side effects or interfering with satiety.
Oral, twice-daily therapy studied for diabetic and idiopathic gastroparesis, and for nausea and vomiting caused by GLP-1 agonists.
Gastroparesis affects as many as 10 million people in the United States, and the treatments that exist are limited and imperfect. On the GLP-1 side, the customer base is anyone who benefits from these medicines but struggles to stay on them - a population that has grown quickly. Near-term, Neurogastrx's stakeholders are the gastroenterologists, clinical investigators, and pharmaceutical partners who move a drug through development.
Standard gastroparesis and anti-nausea care leans on older agents such as metoclopramide and domperidone, each carrying its own trade-offs. Neurogastrx positions NG101's peripheral mechanism and established parent-compound safety profile as its differentiation. Its broader neighborhood is GI-focused biopharma - and, increasingly, the ecosystem of companies working to make the GLP-1 boom more tolerable.
A GI-drug veteran and one of the original members of the Linzess team at Ironwood Pharmaceuticals.
Chief Scientific Officer and co-founder, leading the science behind the NG101 program.
Neurogastroenterologist credited with 50-plus patents; heads the Scientific Advisory Board.
Oversees the company's finance function through its clinical development stage.
Leads commercial strategy for the pipeline.
Heads regulatory affairs and clinical development.
| Round | Amount | Date | Lead Investors |
|---|---|---|---|
| Series A | $45M | Jan 2018 | 5AM Ventures, OrbiMed, venBio |
| Series B | $60M | Aug 2021 | OrbiMed, 5AM Ventures, venBio |
Total capital raised approximately $105-125M. Board chairman Klaus Veitinger, M.D., Ph.D., is a venture partner with OrbiMed.
Pasricha and De Colle establish Neurogastrx to target GI disorders of the enteric nervous system.
Financing advances NG101 for gastroparesis; the company bases itself in the greater Boston area.
NG101 evaluated in a randomized, placebo-controlled study in diabetic and idiopathic gastroparesis (NCT04303195).
New financing and an expanded management team to advance the GI pipeline.
Early data show NG101 reducing GLP-1-associated nausea and vomiting.
Data at ObesityWeek 2025 show nausea down 40% and vomiting down 67% vs. placebo.
The "second brain" isn't a metaphor for marketing - the enteric nervous system contains hundreds of millions of neurons that regulate digestion largely on their own.
NG101's parent compound, metopimazine, has been used in France for over 40 years - a rare case of an old, well-characterized drug pointed at a very modern problem.
The whole design hinges on staying out of the brain: acting peripherally lets it fight nausea without touching the satiety center GLP-1 drugs rely on.
CEO Jim O'Mara helped launch Linzess, one of the better-known GI drugs of the last decade, before taking the reins here.
It is a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company developing drugs for gastrointestinal disorders, with a lead candidate (NG101) for gastroparesis and GLP-1-induced nausea and vomiting.
NG101 is an oral, peripherally acting dopamine D2 receptor antagonist - a proprietary mesylate salt of metopimazine - designed to reduce nausea and vomiting and treat gastroparesis without affecting the brain's satiety center.
Jim (James) O'Mara is President and CEO. Co-founder Cyril De Colle is Chief Scientific Officer, and co-founder Jay Pasricha heads the Scientific Advisory Board.
Roughly $105-125M across a $45M Series A (2018) and a $60M Series B (2021) from investors including OrbiMed, 5AM Ventures and venBio.
In Woburn, Massachusetts, in the greater Boston area.
Sources: Neurogastrx press releases, BusinessWire, citybiz, CB Insights, Crunchbase, ClinicalTrials.gov. Clinical figures are approximate and drawn from company statements.