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Print Edition StoriesFriday, August 7, 2009
Biotech startup Acetylon lands new CEO, board members and $7.25M Series A
By Mass High Tech staff
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HDAC therapeutics startup Acetylon Pharmaceuticals Inc. has pulled in $7.25 million in a Series A funding round, in addition to naming a president and CEO in Walter Ogier, as well as two new board members in Bruce Downey and Elena Prokupets, the Cambridge-based biotech announced today.
The investment will apply financing for optimization, preclinical studies and an investigational new drug application for Acetylon’s HDAC6-selective histone deacetylase (HDAC) inhibitor drug candidates, used to treat multiple myeloma and rheumatoid arthritis. Company officials believe its new HDAC inhibitors eliminate or lower the potentially life-threatening side effects that other HDAC inhibitors hold, according to a statement. Backers of the investment were not named by Acetylon officials.
Acetylon’s HDAC inhibitors were developed at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and at Harvard University by scientific co-founders Ken Anderson, Kraft Family Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School and the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute; Jay Bradner, assistant professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School and the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute; Ralph Mazitschek, instructor at Harvard Medical School and the Center for Systems Biology at Massachusetts General Hospital; and Stuart Schreiber, Morris Loeb professor of chemistry and chemical biology at Harvard University and Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigator.
In addition to the funding announcement, Acetylon named Ogier as its president, CEO and new member of the board of directors. Ogier, the business founder of Acetylon, joins the company having previously served as CEO of Eligix Inc. and Genetix Pharmaceuticals Inc.
New board members include Downey, former chairman and CEO of Barr Pharmaceuticals Inc., and Prokupets, former president, chairman and CEO of Lenel Systems International.
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