Sage Therapeutics alums Jeff Jonas, left, and Al Robichaud are part of the team that created Tortugas Neuroscience.Tortugas Neuroscience

Allison DeAngelis is the East Coast biotech and venture capital reporter at STAT, reporting where scientific ideas and money meet. She is also co-host of the weekly biotech podcast, The Readout Loud. You can reach Allison on Signal at AllisonDeAngelis.01.

A new startup has found that the Chinese biotech industry is good for more than obesity drugs and cancer therapies. 

The company, Tortugas Neuroscience, launched Tuesday with plans to develop two schizophrenia and tinnitus drugs licensed from Chinese drugmaker Jiangsu Hansoh Pharmaceutical Group. The startup will also test two other medicines for focal epilepsy and encephalopathies that were originally created by Japanese pharmaceutical company Eisai Co. Ltd. 

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Tortugas has $106 million from Cure Ventures, The Column Group, and AN Ventures to begin testing the drugs in mid-stage trials in the U.S. 

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