Embrex, now a part of Zoetis (NYSE: ZTS), a global animal health company, developed and launched the world’s first commercial in ovo vaccination device more than 20 years ago. Its Inovoject® System is considered to be the industry standard for in ovo technology, revolutionized automation in the hatchery. Pfizer’s animal health division acquired Embrex in 2007.
Embrex
Bloodhound Technologies
Bloodhound Technologies created a SaaS (Software as a Service) delivery platform aimed at helping healthcare payers control fraud and waste through a real-time claims processing environment.
Sold in 2011 to Verisk Analytics, Bloodhound customers included commercial health plans, state Medicaid agencies, and third-party administrators (TPAs) focused on combatting healthcare fraud through an emphasis on real-time adjudication, transparency for all participants in the claims cycle, business intelligence, and increased auto-adjudication and processing efficiencies.
Real Endpoints
Real Endpoints is an information and data/analytics company focused on providing reimbursement, pricing and market intelligence to stakeholders in the healthcare industry.
Among its products are unique tools that can be used by manufacturers to assess the value of marketed and pipeline drugs from a payer’s point of view, an insight that can enhance their efforts to obtain favorable reimbursement. Other products can be used to guide investment and strategy choices by showing which access challenges a new drug will face and how severe they’ll be.
CuraSen Therapeutics
CuraSen Therapeutics is focused on the discovery and development of therapies to treat neurodegenerative diseases, including Parkinson’s Disease, Alzheimer’s Disease and less common neurodegenerative disorders. The company is developing small molecule drugs targeting a novel mechanism in the brain to modify disease pathology, and alleviate disabling symptoms, such as cognition, executive function, and motor and autonomic dysfunction, all of which can severely impact quality of life.
4D Molecular Therapeutics
4DMT is focused on the discovery and development of targeted, customized and proprietary next-generation AAV gene therapy products for use in patients with severe genetic diseases with high unmet medical need. Their robust discovery platform, termed Therapeutic Vector Evolution, empowers the company to create customized gene delivery vehicles to deliver genes specifically to any tissue or organ in the body, by optimal clinical routes of administration, at lower doses and with resistance to pre-existing antibodies. These proprietary and targeted products allow 4DMT to treat both rare genetic diseases and complex large market diseases.
Phoundry Pharmaceuticals
Phoundry Pharmaceuticals was established in 2015 by a group of former GlaxoSmithKline scientists to focus on discovering peptide therapeutic drugs for metabolic diseases. We were immediately attracted by the depth and breadth of experience of the scientific team, led by CEO Paul Feldman and CSO Andrew Young, whose track record before they spun out of GSK included eight drug products and more than two dozen phase 2 clinical-stage assets. Peptides with the necessary pharmaceutical properties, the focus for Phoundry, have historically been challenging to discover. We believed the Phoundry team’s specialized and highly-developed expertise could overcome hurdles that have stymied other companies.
Pappas Capital joined as a co-founder with the GSK scientists, leading the company’s seed financing round. Shortly thereafter, in September 2015, Phoundry was acquired by Intarcia Therapeutics, which plans to integrate the Phoundry team’s expertise into its own clinical diabetes and obesity programs.
Aura Biosciences
Aura Biosciences is a Boston-based company focused on the development of drugs using tumor targeted pseudovirions, synthetic viruses that demonstrate key targeting selectivity for solid tumors and metastases and can efficiently release target molecules within cancerous cells.
The company’s lead product is focused on treating life-threatening ocular cancers for which no FDA-approved therapies are available. By applying its novel viral nanoparticle technology, developed in partnership with the National Cancer Institute (NCI), Aura is dedicated to bringing this patient population first-in-class therapies that can both eliminate the tumor and preserve vision.
Minoryx
Minoryx is a drug development company specializing in the discovery of new drugs for orphan diseases. The company targets Inborn Errors of Metabolism; a group of rare diseases of genetic origin with a high unmet medical need. The company’s leading program is a differentiated PPAR gamma agonist (MIN-102) that has multiple CNS indications. Minoryx harnesses its unique mechanism of action for potential use in X-ALD, a genetic disease characterized by progressive neurologic deterioration with no available pharmacological treatment. Minoryx is also working on a new class of compounds: non-competitive pharmacological chaperones, identified through its innovative proprietary platform – SEE-Tx.
The Minoryx team is made up of a group of drug discovery and development experts with several decades of experience in biotech and pharma. The company is backed by a syndicate of experienced investors and has support from a network of other organizations.
Glycomine
Glycomine is a drug development company focused on developing therapeutics for the treatment of a group of inherited metabolic disorders collectively known as congenital disorders of glycosylation. The company is developing its lead program for the treatment of PMM2-CDG, formerly known as Congenital Disorder of Glycosylation type Ia (or CDG-Ia), a rare and seriously debilitating disorder for which there are no approved therapeutics. The company’s first drug candidate is a substrate replacement therapy intended to bypass the metabolic block found in patients with PMM2-CDG. Glycomine has performed initial preclinical proof-of-concept studies in patient-derived fibroblasts with lead candidates that demonstrate the successful restoration of protein glycosylation.
Sentien Biotechnologies
Sentien Biotechnologies is a clinical stage company developing novel approaches to cell therapy. Its lead product is designed to allow for controlled, sustained delivery of mesenchymal stem cell (MSC) secreted factors. Sentien's approach immobilizes the MSCs in an extracorporeal device, allowing for doses of therapeutic secreted factors that are unattainable by direct injection.
