MedPro Investors
Stephen Nagler
Executive DirectorMesa Verde Venture Partners
Mesa Verde Venture Partners is a Venture Capital company founded in 2006. The firm is currently making investments out of its 2nd fund that had its first close in 2013. The firm makes primarily equity investment into seed and early stage rounds ranging from $500,000 to $1 million initially and up to $1.5 million over the lifetime of the investment. The firm is focused on companies located in the Southwestern United States although they are open to review companies from throughout the US. The firm could make as many as 3 new investments over the next 6-9 months.
Carey Ng
Managing DirectorRandy Berholtz
Senior AdvisorMid Atlantic Bio Angels
Mid Atlantic Bio Angels (MABA) founded in 212 is an angel investor group based in the New York City area which focuses exclusively on new and emerging life science companies. The group places no geographical restrictions or requirements for presenting companies as long as meaningful and effective post-investment monitoring of these companies can be achieved, MABA has considered opportunities in Europe and Israel as well as across the USA and Canada. Since the members are investing their own capital the investment size is highly flexible and will depend on the financial needs of the company. The capital structure is typically in preferred stocks or convertible notes in qualified cases. The group prefers to invest in companies with valuations of less than $5M. As MABA prefers opportunities that can be entirely angel-financed MABA generally requires that companies can achieve exit with $15 million capital or under (generally after raising a Series B round but no further rounds).
Bernard Rudnick
FounderMidCap Financial LLC
Josh Groman
Managing DirectorJames Taylor
DirectorNaegis Pharmaceuticals Inc.
Naegis, based in Vancouver, British Columbia, is developing novel, small-molecule leukotirene synthesis inhibitors (LTSIs) for serious inflammatory conditions. The Company is currently focused on two proprietary programs:
o topical and oral therapy for Uveitis, a condition that is responsible for 10% of legal blindness in the US and for which there are limited therapeutic options.
o oral therapy for Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD), a serious lung disease with increasing rates of mortality.
Naegis has developed a large library of LTSIs that are potent inhibitors of either 5-LO or LTA4H. The Company is currently identifying a lead compound for selection for futher development for ocular disease, in particular Uveitis.
The Company is also advancing a series of compounds that are novel structures and highly selective and potent inhibitors of LTA4H, which are expected to be developed as new therpaies for COPD
Naegis is seeking pharmaceutical partners and capital investment to advance more rapidly their novel programs.
Ian McBeath
Corporate DevelopmentNew Leaf Venture Partners
Mike Dybbs
PrincipalNYU Office of Therapeutics Alliances
The NYU Office of Industrial Liaison (OIL) promotes the commercial development of NYU technologies into products to benefit the public, while providing resources to the University to support its research, education, and patient care missions. NYU OIL also facilitates research collaborations between NYU researchers and industry on projects of mutual interest.
In 2013, NYU launched the Office of Therapeutics Alliances (OTA). OTA is a nimble, "virtual biotech" approach to advance novel therapeutic projects by playing on the strengths of NYU in dissecting disease pathways and those of external, professional capabilities in early stage R&D. OTA identifies NYU projects with potential for addressing unmet needs, delineates the path to therapeutic proof of concept and assembles internal and external resources tailored to each specific project’s needs to maximize the likelihood of successful partnerships with biopharma, new biotech startups or disease foundations.
Nadim Shohdy
Director, Drug Discovery PartnershipsO2h Ventures Limited
O2h has a track record of investing in emerging biotech, small molecule and frontier life science starts-ups
A passion for entrepreneurship and life sciences motivates o2h to participate in syndicated seed stage investments. O2h are ready to support the investments with active or passive support to further the objectives of the company.
Sunil Shah
PartnerPrashant Shah
PartnerOrphagen Pharmaceuticals
Orphagen’s focus is small molecule discovery at novel drug targets. We create programs leading to first-in-class drugs. Our goal is to partner these with development stage pharmaceutical companies.
We have been first mover in creating three discovery programs for novel targets, including one program that initiated Phase 1 clinical trials with a strategic partner (JT Pharma) in 2013 for autoimmune disease.
We work with novel drug targets from a very productive target class, the nuclear receptors.
Our work has so far been funded by $15 M in federal grants and partnership revenue. Orphagen is in the process of raising equity funding to accelerate current programs.
Orphagen’s lead internal program is for retinitis pigmentosa, the major form of hereditary blindness. Closely following are antagonists to SF-1, a promising target for treatment of Cushing’s syndrome, a life-threatening endocrine disorder, and two cancers with an endocrine connection: prostate cancer and adrenocortical cancer. New target screening may lead to first-in-class programs for glioblastoma, sickle cell anemia, and cancer immunotherapy.