California Institute for Regenerative Medicine (CIRM)
Neil Littman
Business Development OfficerCDRD Ventures
CDRD Ventures Inc. (CVI) is the commercialization vehicle of the Centre for Drug Research and Development (CDRD), Canada's national drug development and commercialization center that was founded in 2007 and is based in Vancouver, Canada. CVI seeks to advance promising drug development projects from CDRD using internal funds and through partnerships with international pharmaceutical companies, venture capital firms, biotech companies, and other funding agencies. CVI also seeks to in-license technologies from industry or non-CDRD affiliated research institutions. The firm considers both small molecule and biologic innovative technologies in virtually any therapeutic area.
Ms Natalie Dakers
President & CEOMr Michael Lincoln
Chief Financial and Business OfficerChempetitive Group
Chempetitive Group is an integrated marketing communications agency focused exclusively on the life sciences. We work with biotech, medical device, pharmaceutical, chemical and tools/instrumentation companies of all sizes that around the globe. We develop winning strategies and campaigns that build brands and generate revenues. We love science. We understand science. And, we know how to effectively reach the scientific, clinical, medical and business communities that matter.
Long live science.
Visit us in San Diego, San Francisco, Chicago, Boston or Cambridge UK.
Find out about us at http://www.chempetitive.com
Chiesi Ventures
Art Pappas
PartnerCitareTx Investment Partners
CitareTx founded in 2008 is a venture development and investment firm based in Houston Texas. The firm provides investment and incubation services to start-up and early-stage medical device companies. The firm provides seed capital (equity) ranging from $5K to $2M with follow-on capital of up to $5M. The firm also considers investment opportunities with smaller than typically accepted venture capital market size thresholds. The firm is geographically agnostic but prefers companies to be based in Texas. The firm is actively seeking new opportunities.
Jeffery Sheldon
General Partner & Managing DirectorCorrelation Ventures
Correlation Ventures is a venture capital firm that founded in 2010 and is based in San Diego, California with an additional office in Palo Alto, California. The firm currently has approximately $165 million in total assets under management. The firm typically makes investments ranging from $0.25 million to $5 million over the life of the company, and the first investment will be not larger than $2.5 million. The firm’s preferred capital structure is convertible preferred equity or convertible loan. Correlation Ventures will consider invest in any industry segment at any stage, but there must be at least one other venture capital firm making their first investment in the company in this round. The firm only invests in US-based companies.
Correlation is extremely opportunistic when it comes to investments in the life sciences space; with that being said the firm's specified sectors and sub sectors of interest may or may not be an area in which Correlation Ventures is currently looking to allocate capital to. The firm has made a number of investments in companies in the life sciences space, and has mainly invested in companies in the biotech therapeutics and diagnostics space. The firm's current portfolio includes biotech therapeutics and diagnostics firms developing products targeting endocrine, metabolic, and nutritional diseases, musculoskeletal system and connective tissue, neoplasms, cancer, and oncology, genitourinary system, and infectious and parasitic diseases.
David Coats
Managing DirectorCrestone Inc.
Crestone, Inc. is an early stage drug discovery and development company focused on developing novel treatments for serious bacterial infections. The company currently has two main programs that address areas of significant and growing unmet medical need, both with novel mechanism of action agents.
1. Novel treatment for Clostridium difficile infections. CRS3123 is currently in clinical development for the treatment of C. difficile infection (CDI), and is nearing completion of Phase 1. CDI occurs when toxin-producing bacteria colonize the gastrointestinal tract. The infection spreads rapidly via spores which contaminate hospitals and nursing homes, and recurrence is a major clinical issue. Due to the emergence of hyper-virulent drug resistant strains, mortality from CDI has increased over 700% since 1999. In preclinical studies, CRS3123 shows much lower recurrence compared to vancomycin, a key attribute for improved therapy of CDI. We seek funding for Phase 2 clinical studies to demonstrate clinical proof-of-concept.
2. Novel oral agents for Gram-positive infections. We are developing a novel class of DNA replication inhibitors, currently in advanced preclinical research. These compounds selectively inhibit an essential component of the replicative DNA polymerase complex and are potent, orally available, and effective against all clinically-relevant Gram-positive pathogens, including methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA), vancomycin-resistant enterococci (VRE), penicillin-resistant Streptococcus pneumoniae (PRSP) and Bacillus anthracis (anthrax). We anticipate development of a drug similar to Zyvox in spectrum, but with key advantages such as rapid bacterial killing and improved safety. This grant-supported program is expected to produce a clinical candidate in 2015.
Crestone will develop these programs through key value inflection points in early clinical development, and then share the risk and expense of late-stage trials with a partner. We have a talented core team in place, and have a plan for strategic hiring to ensure that we can accomplish critical milestones. We have identified potential candidates to fill a number of key positions, while outsourcing activities that benefit from economies of scale/expertise, including large-scale chemical synthesis, animal testing, clinical trial execution and regulatory affairs. We have demonstrated the ability to leverage non-dilutive financing to meet critical early milestones, maintaining a semi-virtual structure and low burn rate.
Dr Thale Jarvis
FounderCydan
Chris Adams
CEODeep Knowledge Ventures
We are a Hong Kong-based venture fund management company focusing on mid- to long-term advanced technology investments at early stage. Through our partnership with the top analytical companies utilizing machine learning and large panel of experts, we can construct complex decision trees showing risk and return at every stage of company evolution. We routinely invest in both private and public companies specializing in biotechnology, drug discovery, personalized medicine, Big Data analysis, industrial expert systems and artificial intelligence.
Dermspectra LLC
DermSpectra has developed an innovative high resolution full body imaging system designed to aid early detection of skin cancers and diseases, and revolutionize medical documentation. The DermSpectra Automated Total Body Digital Skin Imaging (DSI) System fills a key technology gap in medical imaging, empowers physicians with an objective tool to accurately and efficiently detect and monitor skin and body changes over time and raises the bar for patient care.