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December 10, 2019 Bioscience Notebook

Biotech startup CEOs honored for entrepreneurship

PHOTO | Contributed Erika Smith
By Natalie Missakian

CEOs from two of the New Haven area’s most promising biotech startups are sharing the title of BioCT’s 2019 Entrepreneur of the Year.

The state bioscience booster organization singled out Erika Smith, CEO of New Haven’s ReNetX Bio Inc., and Sean MacKay, CEO and co-founder of Branford-based IsoPlexis, for their recent efforts to grow their respective companies.

The executives will be honored Tuesday evening at BioCT’s annual holiday networking celebration at Alexion Pharmaceuticals.

BioCT established the annual award with the law firm of Shipman & Goodwin to showcase Connecticut bioscience entrepreneurs who are making an impact both within and beyond the state’s borders.

The organization cited Smith, former head of the Blavatnik Fund for Innovation at Yale, for raising more than $25 million in capital for ReNetX and for her leadership in advancing the company’s technology to treat spinal-cord injuries into clinical trials. 

Sean MacKay

MacKay, meanwhile, was honored for raising $40 million in growth capital to date for the venture-backed startup, and more than $10 million in grants. The company has developed a diagnostic system that can predict how a patient is likely to respond to certain cancer treatments. 

BioCT President and CEO Dawn Hocevar said the pair have “the critical skills that combine business and science to successfully grow these stellar companies.” 

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Biohaven Pharmaceuticals announced last week it would continue with an Alzheimer’s disease study on its experimental drug troriluzole after the potential treatment passed a “futility analysis.”

The analysis, conducted after the first 100 patient volunteers completed treatment, was designed specifically to allow for stopping the trial early, Biohaven said.

To pass the test, the drug had to outperform a placebo on at least one of two criteria: cognitive function, or hippocampal volume as shown on MRI. The hippocampus is the part of the brain that plays a key role in memory. 

Troriluzole works by regulating the brain chemical glutamate, a neurotransmitter that is believed to play a role in multiple neurological diseases.  

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Achillion Pharmaceuticals Inc. said its companion drug to Alexion Pharmaceuticals' Soliris to treat the rare blood disease paroxysmal nocturnal hemoglobinuria (PNH) is advancing to the final phase of clinical trials after a successful Phase 2 study.

The company, which is being acquired by Alexion for $930 million, announced the results for its breakthrough drug, danicopan, Monday at the American Society of Hematology Annual Meeting in Orlando, Fla.  

The FDA designated danicopan a “breakthrough therapy”  in September for PNH, a life-threatening disease marked by the destruction of red blood cells. 

The title allows speedier approval of drugs that may substantially improve treatment for serious diseases. The drug works by inhibiting the immune system enzyme Factor D.

Achillion, which was founded and has a research facility in New Haven, said volunteers who took danicopan with Soliris had increased hemoglobin levels and needed significantly fewer blood transfusions after 24 weeks. There were also “meaningful improvements” in markers of red blood cell destruction.

Achillion said the drug was well tolerated, although two patients experienced severe “adverse events” during the trial. Those patients were able to continue with the drug and the study after the events were resolved, Achillion said. 

Contact Natalie Missakian at news@newhavenbiz.com

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