Achillion Pharmaceuticals

New Haven, CT

Website

Achillion is an innovative biopharmaceutical company dedicated to bringing important new treatments to patients with infectious disease. The Company's highly skilled and experienced discovery and development teams have advanced multiple product candidates with novel mechanisms of action. Achillion is focused on solutions for the most challenging problems in infectious disease - HCV, resistant bacterial infections, and HIV.

Afferent Pharmaceuticals

Palo Alto, CA

Website

Afferent Pharmaceuticals is focused on developing first-in-class medicines to treat chronic pain by targeting P2X3 receptors in peripheral nerves, where pain-causing stimuli are detected. As a result, it does not expect its drugs to be as prone to central nervous system side effects. The non-opiate mechanism also offers the potential to avoid dependence that limits the use of other pain medications. The company’s lead compound, AF-219, has successfully completed two Phase 1 clinical studies, and is expected to undergo efficacy testing in several pain and pain-related indications.

Anthera Pharmaceuticals

San Mateo, CA

Website

Anthera Pharmaceuticals is a pharmaceutical development company focused on the advancement of promising clinical products for the treatment of serious inflammatory diseases. Anthera's lead products are inhibitors of secretory phospholipase A2. The lead product has completed Phase 2 development for coronary artery disease (CAD).

Athersys

Cleveland, OH

Nasdaq: ATHX

Website

Athersys is a biopharmaceutical and regenerative medicine company that has established a pipeline of therapeutic product development programs in multiple disease areas. Its product portfolio consists of MultiStem, a non-embryonic stem cell-based approach for treating certain cardiovascular disorders, stroke, bone marrow transplantation and oncology support.

BaroSense

Menlo Park, CA

Website

BaroSense focuses on the research and development of innovative, minimally invasive medical devices for the treatment of obesity - the largest global chronic disease in adults.

Bayhill Therapeutics

San Mateo, CA

Website

Bayhill is a biopharmaceutical company focused on the translation of research into therapeutics for the treatment of autoimmune diseases. The company is developing DNA-antigen vaccines and oligonucleotides that are specifically designed to promote immune intolerance. Bayhill's lead compound, an antigen-specific immunotherapy aimed at treating multiple sclerosis, has completed a Phase 2 trial. The company also has a Type 1 diabetes program in a Phase 1/2 trial.

BrainCells

San Diego, CA

Website

BrainCells (BCI) is a neurogenesis-based drug discovery and development company targeting novel therapies for depression, mood disorders and other CNS diseases. The company is developing a neurogenesis platform for profiling and selecting drug candidates. BCI believes that the platform represents a major improvement in the predictive power of pre-clinical models for CNS disorders and will facilitate a paradigm shift in the way CNS drugs are discovered.

CardioDx

Palo Alto, CA

Website

CardioDx is a cardiovascular molecular diagnostics company developing tools to assist cardiologists in the diagnosis of cardiovascular disease. Its lead test, Corus-CADx, is a gene expression algorithm-based blood test for the detection of significant atherosclerotic coronary artery disease in patients with stable chest pain.

CeNeRx BioPharma

Cary, NC

Website

CeNeRx is developing innovative treatments for diseases of the central nervous system. Its lead product, a reversible inhibitor of monoamine oxidase, is in a Phase 2 trial for the treatment of major depressive disorder. CeNeRx also has a pipeline of selective cannabinoid compounds for the treatment of pain, glaucoma, and obesity.

Chimerix

Durham, NC

Website

Chimerix is developing orally bioavailable antiviral therapies for unmet medical needs in immunocompromised patient populations, including transplant and oncology, HIV and HBV. The company has two clinical-stage compounds, CMX001 and CMX157. In Phase 2 clinical testing, CMX001, a broad spectrum Lipid-Antiviral-Conjugate, has shown a statistically significant benefit versus placebo in preventing CMV viremia and/or CMV disease in hematopoietic stem cell transplant (HCT) recipients. CMX001 is also in Phase 2 development for the preemption of adenovirus infections in HCT recipients and is being developed as a medical countermeasure against a smallpox release.

CoLucid Pharmaceuticals

Indianapolis, IN

Website

CoLucid Pharmaceuticals is a clinical stage biopharmaceutical company developing therapeutics to treat neurological dysfunctions. CoLucid’s lead program is based on a potent and selective 5-HT1F receptor agonist that has the potential to be useful in the acute treatment and/or prevention or prophylaxis of migraine headaches. The company also possesses a robust chemistry platform that will produce unique bifunctional neuromodulators to treat indications such as Alzheimer's disease.

Gentis

Wayne, PA

Website

Gentis is a biomaterials and orthopedics company that has developed and is testing a breakthrough, non-fusion technology for treatment of spinal disc disease. Its lead product, DiscCell, is a radio-opaque implant designed to restore normal biomechanical function of a degenerated or surgically treated intervertebral disc by augmenting or replacing the worn-out gel-like tissue at its center (the nucleus pulposus).

LipoScience

Raleigh, NC

Website

LipoScience is a diagnostic company utilizing nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy to measure the size and quantity of lipoprotein particles in blood. The company's NMR LipoProfile® blood test is intended to provide a better indication of the risk of developing cardiovascular heart disease compared with standard cholesterol tests that measure 'good' and 'bad' cholesterol. The company currently markets and sells the NMR LipoProfile test to physicians, other healthcare professionals, diagnostic laboratories and clinical research clients.

Liquidia Technologies

Research Triangle Park, NC

Website

Liquidia utilizes a proprietary technology platform to design and manufacture highly precise micro- and nanoparticles that allow for the delivery of biological and small molecule therapeutics. Initial programs include siRNA delivery, inhaled therapeutics, and vaccines.

Lumena Pharmaceuticals

Durham, NC

Website

Lumena is focused on developing treatments for metabolic diseases through non-systemically absorbed compounds having targets within the lumen of the gut.

Marina Biotech

Bothell, WA

Website

Marina Biotech is focused on realizing the potential of RNAi-based therapeutics through the development of multiple broad-based, state-of-the-art drug discovery platforms built upon industry leading expertise in RNA chemistry, microbiology and oligonucleotide delivery.

MethylGene

Montreal, Quebec

TSX: MYG

Website

MethylGene is a biopharmaceutical company focused on the discovery, development and commercialization of inhibitors for enzymes involved primarily in oncologic and infectious disease indications. The company uses functional genomics to validate enzyme targets and uses rational drug design and medicinal chemistry to design, synthesize and optimize enzyme inhibitors.

Milestone Pharmaceuticals

Montreal, Quebec

Website

Milestone Pharmaceuticals is a drug development company developing novel small molecule therapeutics based on clinically validated mechanisms for cardiovascular diseases. The company’s lead program is focused on developing a novel short-acting treatment for acute episodes of paroxysmal supraventricular tachycardia (PSVT) and its lead product is a derivative of an approved drug for the target indication.

Optherion

New Haven, CT

Website

Optherion is an early-stage biotechnology company that is developing therapeutics and diagnostic tools for age-related macular degeneration (AMD) and orphan renal diseases strongly influenced by components of the alternative complement system. Optherion's technologies are based on recent genetic discoveries linking certain genes to these disorders.

Selventa

Cambridge, MA

Website

Selventa (formerly known as Genstruct) is focused on the application of computational systems biology to drug discovery and development. The company is developing disease-specific mechanistic models that are used to discover the mechanisms underlying disease, drug action, and drug efficacy. Pappas Ventures originally invested in Incellico, which was acquired by Genstruct in July 2003.

Sensys Medical

Chandler, AZ

Website

Sensys is developing a non-invasive blood glucose monitor that uses near infrared diffuse reflectance spectroscopy. Once cleared by the Food and Drug Administration, the technology will provide a painless method to collect data for proactive use in controlling diabetes.

Syndax Pharmaceuticals

Waltham, MA

Website

Syndax is an oncology-focused biopharmaceutical company that is developing novel therapies in optimized, mechanistically driven combination regimens. The company is currently in multiple Phase 2a trials with its histone deacetylase inhibitor (HDACi) for breast cancer, lung cancer, and Hodgkin’s Lymphoma.

TESARO

Waltham, MA

Website

TESARO is an oncology-focused biopharmaceutical company focused on acquiring and developing promising drug candidates. TESARO is developing rolapitant, a potent, selective neurokinin-1 receptor antagonist that has completed Phase 2 clinical testing for the prevention of chemotherapy induced nausea and vomiting, and is advancing its ALK inhibitor program for oncology indications. TESARO was co-founded by former executives of MGI PHARMA, an oncology and acute-care focused biopharmaceutical company that Eisai Co., Ltd. acquired in 2008 for $3.9 billion.

TyRx

Monmouth Junction, NJ

Website

TyRx is a medical device company developing a range of drug-eluting implantable devices based on proprietary tyrosine polymer technology licensed from Rutgers University. The company's lead product is AIGIS-Rx™, an antibiotic-eluting mesh envelope into which pacemakers and defibrillators can be inserted prior to surgical implantation, thereby reducing the risk of post-procedure infection.

UltraGenyx Pharmaceutical

Novato, CA

Website

Ultragenyx is a privately held biotechnology company focused on rare genetic disorders, founded by Emil Kakkis, MD, PhD, the former CMO of BioMarin, who is widely recognized as a leader in the rare disease field. Its mission is to build a first-in-class rare disease company addressing proteins or small molecules with clear disease targets and treatment mechanisms which have been overlooked and are ready for development. Its lead program is a substrate replacement therapy for a rare muscle wasting disease.