EUROPE
US
PRILENIA

Prilenia is a clinical stage biotech company, led by Michael Hayden, MD, PhD., who is a world-renowned scientist in Huntington Disease research and the former President of Global R&D and Chief Scientific Officer at Teva Pharmaceuticals. The company’s lead asset is a highly selective sigma-1 receptor (S1R) which has shown to maintain functional capacity in early HD patients, as measured by Total Functional Capacity (TFC). Furthermore, it was recently selected from an international competition of over 30 potential therapeutics for inclusion in the first ever ALS platform trial, led by the Healey Center for ALS at Massachusetts General Hospital. Pridopidine is currently in late-stage clinical development for HD (Phase III) and ALS (Phase II).

www.prilenia.com





INVESTMENT IN TARGET: SERIES A

OTHER INVESTORS: Forbion, Morningside Ventures, Sectoral Asset Management, Talisman Capital Partners

PRODUCT: Small molecule (sigma-1 receptor (S1R)

PROGRAMS: Huntington’s Disease, ALS

PHASE: PHASE III


ROBERT BROWN

Scientific Advisory Board

EMULATE

Based on our Organs-on-Chips technology, we have created a Human Emulation System that provides a high-fidelity window into the inner workings of human biology and disease.

The platform offers researchers a new standard for predicting how a human may respond to medicines, chemicals, and foods — with greater precision and control than today’s cell culture or animal-based testing methods.

www.emulatebio.com






INVESTMENT IN TARGET: SERIES C

OTHER INVESTORS: FOUNDERS FUND

PRODUCT: ‘ORGAN-ON-A-CHIP’ PLATFORMTECHNOLOGY (GROWING CELLS ON A DEVICE) FOR PRE CLINICAL DEVELOPMENT

PROGRAMS: +10 PROGRAMS AMONG WHICH LUNG-, KIDNEY-, LIVER-, AND BRAIN MODELS. A COMBINATION OF MODELS IS RELEVANT FOR ALS

PHASE: MARKET ROLL-OUT


VERGE

Verge was founded by a unique combination of the field’s top machine learning experts and seasoned neuroscience drug developers. They share the vision that exponential advances in computational genomics combined with new insights into neuroscience has created a breakthrough opportunity to discover drugs that dramatically improve the lives of patients suffering from neurodegenerative disease.

www.vergegenomics.com





INVESTMENT IN TARGET: SERIES A

OTHER INVESTORS: DRAPER FISHER JURVETSON, WUXI

PRODUCT: COMBINING ROBUST DATA PLATFORM AND DEEP NEUROBIOLOGY EXPERTISE TO DEVELOP NOVEL THERAPIES

PROGRAMS: LEAD PROGRAMS ALS AND PARKINSONS’S, CONTRACT WORK IN OTHER INDICATIONS WITH PARTNERS

PHASE: CLINICAL


ORPHAZYME

Orphazyme was founded in 2009 with the objective to develop new therapies for patients suffering from protein-misfolding diseases with no or limited treatment options available.The company was based on a scientific discovery on the function of Heat-Shock Proteins (HSPs) by Thomas Kirkegaard Jensen and Professor Marja Jäättelä that was published in the scientific journal Nature. Since inception, Orphazyme has translated the scientific discovery into a late-stage clinical development program. Protein misfolding is the hallmark of a broad range of diseases and Orphazyme’s strategy is to use its expertise, including proprietary know-how to select and develop new leads for suitable diseases, hence the development of a proprietary suite of New Molecular Entities (NMEs) with improved characteristics. Orphazyme intends to select diseases suitable for the NMEs based on genetic and mechanistic insights into selected protein-misfolding diseases.

www.orphazyme.com






INVESTMENT IN TARGET: SERIES B

OTHER INVESTORS: LSP, NOVO, SUNSTONE, KURMA PARTNERS, AESCAP

PRODUCT: SMALL MOLECULE THERAPY

PROGRAMS: LEAD PROGRAMS: ALS, NIEMANN PICK, SIBM SEOCNARY:GAUCHER AND PARKINSON’S

PHASE: PHASE II (POTENTIALLY PIVOTAL)


APICBIO

Apic Bio Inc. (”Apic”) is a Boston based gene therapy company with a clinical stage program and a new, ground breaking technology platform. Whereas gene therapies normally consist of single vectors that stop or repair genes, Apic’s new platform uses two vectors simultaneously that stop and repair genes. The company has spun-out of University of Massachusetts Medical School which is one of the scientific leading institutes in gene therapy. The scientific leaders, Terry Flottes, Christian Mueller and Bob Brown are world renown in their field. Christian was involved in founding the company with John Reilly who is CEO. The company focuses on two indications, being ALS and Alpha-1 Antitrypsin Deficiency (AATD). In ALS the company targets two gene mutations.






INVESTMENT IN TARGET: SERIES A

OTHER INVESTORS: MORNINGSIDE VENTURES

PRODUCT: GENE THERAPY WITH DUAL VECTOR APPROACH

PROGRAMS: ALS MUTATIONS S0D1 AND C9, AND ALPHA 1 ANTI-TRIPSIN DEFICIENCY

PHASE: PHASE I


AMYLYX


Amylyx is developing a proprietary therapeutic for Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) and other neurodegenerative diseases that targets the neuroinflammation and nerve cell death that characterize these disorders. The company’s therapeutic, AMX0035, is a proprietary combination of existing compounds that Amylyx has demonstrated have synergistic effects in preventing nerve cell death and neurotoxic inflammation in multiple preclinical models. Outcome of a Phase II trial for ALS is expected in H2 2019.

www.amylyx.com






INVESTMENT IN TARGET: SERIES A

OTHER INVESTORS: MORNINGSIDE VENTURES, HENRI TERMEER

PRODUCT: COMBINING TWO REPURPOSED SMALL MLECULES INTO ONE THERAPY

PROGRAMS: COMBINATION OF 2 EXISTING DRUGS ALS; ALZHEIMER’S, FRIEDREICH’S ATAXIA

PHASE: ON MARKET USA & CANADA


MERIT CUDKOWICZ

Scientific Advisory Board

  • Chief, Neurology Service, Massachusetts General Hospital
  • Julieanne Dorn Professor of Neurology, Harvard Medical School
  • Director, Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis Clinic, Massachusetts General Hospital
  • Co-Director, Neuromuscular Division, Massachusetts General Hospital
  • Director Neurological Clinical Research Institute (NCRI)
  • Founder and former co-directors of the Northeast ALS Consortium (NEALS)

JEFF ROTHSTEIN

Scientific Advisory Board

  • Former MD, Neurologist, MSc Neurochemistry, PhD Physiology and Biophysics
  • Professor of Neurology & Neuroscience, Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, USA
  • Faculty of the Graduate Program in Cellular and Molecular Medicine
  • Founder and Director of the Robert Packard Centre for ALS Research
  • Director of the Brain Science Institute
  • Co-Director of the ALS Clinic

PAMELA SHAW

Scientific Advisory Board

  • Professor of Neurology, University of Sheffield, UK
  • Director, Sheffield Institute of Translational Neuroscience (SITraN)
  • Director, Sheffield Care and Research Centre for Motor Neuron Disorders
  • Consultant Neurologist
  • Associate Director Dementia and Neurodegenerative Diseases Clinical
  • Research Network (DeNDRoN)
  • Advised several biotech companies

LEONARD VAN DEN BERG

Scientific Advisory Board

  • MD, PhD, neurologist UMC Utrecht, NL
  • Professor of Neurology, Experimental Neurology of Motor Neurons
  • Director Netherlands ALS and section Neuromuscular Diseases Brain Centre Rudolf Magnus
  • Chairman ENCALS
  • Member Scientific Council Prinses Beatrix Fonds & the Latran Foundation
  • Several editorial board memberships

RIST BROUWER

Advisory Board

  • 10 years + Managing Director Global Private Equity firm
  • Past experience include consultancy to business owners and mid sized businesses
  • Founder and CEO of software company DMDSecure, sold to Safenet Technologies
  • MSc Philosophy, MBA

MANFRED RÜDIGER

Advisory Board

  • CEO Kiadis Pharma (Euronext listed, oncology / orphan drug designation)
  • Vice Chairman of the supervisory board of 4SC AG
  • Former venture partner LSP (5 years)
  • Former positions: Chief Scientific Officer and acting CEO of Cardion AG, CEO of Igeneon AG, Chief Operating Officer of NASDAQ-listed Aphton Corporation, and CEO of t2cure GmbH
  • PhD in Biochemistry from the Max Planck Institute for Biophysical Chemistry in Göttingen

ALAN WALTS

Advisory Board

  • Former Director Genzyme Ventures
  • Venture partner Advent Life Sciences
  • Investor and board member in several biotech companies
  • Education: PhD Chemistry MIT

CRAIG BOYCE

ALS Investment Fund

  • 18 years, 5 yrs as Managing Director, investing experience at Bain Capital in US and Asia/Australia
  • 2 years strategy consulting at Bain & Company
  • Father died from ALS 20-yrs ago; actively involved in ALS philanthropy via ALSA, Angel Fund and UMass/MGH — raised/donated $2m+
  • Education: Chemical Engineering BSE (Princeton) & MSCEP (MIT); MBA (Harvard)

MELANIE LEITNER

ALS Investment Fund

  • 16 years experience in scientific translational strategy and R&D as employee and independent consultant
  • 10+ years in ALS related work: Biogen ALS Innovation Hub, Target ALS and CSO, Pize4Life
  • Experience in academia, government, non-profit & for-profit sectors
  • Education: Neuroscience ScB (Brown University) and PhD (Washington University in St. Louis)
  • Howard Hughes Predoctoral Fellowship & Lucille P. Markey Fellowship for graduate work

FELIX VON COERPER

ALS Investment Fund

  • Founder SUNU Ventures and fund manager ALS Investment Fund
  • 19 years experience in venturing, business development & finance, mostly in life sciences
  • Invested & co-founded MySample BV (diagnostics, medtech)
  • 10 years management & CEO of a med tech company (Elana), orphan indication in neuroscience
  • Founder start-up incubator
  • Economics MSc, THNK (Innovative Leadership)