The seventh annual BioPharm America™ international life science partnering conference kicked off today in Boston with the live announcement of biotech’s most daring characters in biopharma, the “Fierce 15,” by John Carroll, Editor-in-Chief of FierceBiotech.
2014 Fierce 15 winners announced at BioPharm America™ today in Boston (Photo: Business Wire)
“It’s always a lot of fun to look over a new group of Fierce 15 companies,” said John Carroll, Editor-in-Chief of FierceBiotech. “This year in particular you’ll find quite a few examples of longtime biotech execs, experienced investors and some great scientists coming together to launch new companies. This year’s group says a lot about the potential of the field and points the way forward for the coming wave of biotech startups.”
The Fierce 15 winners represent fifteen privately held drug developers or platform biotechs with the potential to have a huge impact on the treatment of human diseases. A LIVE Stream announcement of the Fierce 15 took place during BioPharm America™ 2014 and can be replayed for a limited time on partnering360:Insight.
The 2014 Fierce 15 winners are:
- Adaptimmune, Oxford, UK: James Noble, CEO
- Aduro BioTech, Berkeley, CA: Stephen Isaacs, Chairman, President and CEO
- Calico, San Francisco, CA: Arthur Levinson, Founder and CEO
- Cidara Therapeutics, San Diego, CA: Jeffrey Stein, President and CEO
- Cleave Biosciences, Burlingame, CA: Laura Shawver, CEO
- Dimension Therapeutics, Cambridge, MA: Thomas Beck, Founder and Interim CEO
- Editas Medicine, Cambridge, MA: Katrine Bosley, CEO
- Juno Therapeutics, Seattle, WA: Hans Bishop, CEO and Co-founder
- Molecular Partners, Schlieren, Switzerland: Christian Zahnd, CEO
- Navitor Pharmaceuticals, Cambridge, MA: George Vlasuk, President and CEO
- Seres Health, Cambridge, MA: Roger Pomerantz, President and CEO
- Spark Therapeutics, Philadelphia, PA: Jeffrey Marrazzo, Co-Founder, President and CEO
- Spero Therapeutics, Cambridge, MA: Ankit Mahadevia, President and Acting CBO
- Sutro Biopharma, San Francisco, CA: William J. Newell, CEO
- Voyager Therapeutics, Cambridge, MA: Steven Paul, CEO
- And Fierce 15 Extra – Mapp Biopharmaceutical, San Diego, CA: Kevin Whaley, CEO
“It is an honor to be named as one of the 'Fierce 15,' an award that recognizes our employees, our clinical collaborators and patients for the advancements we’re making in the field of cancer immunotherapy. This has been a year of tremendous progress at the company on a number of fronts, with exciting new data generated in our pancreatic cancer and mesothelioma trials, a new collaboration with Janssen Biotech, Inc., and completion of a $55 million venture round. We look forward to continued momentum as we seek to provide patients with more effective, less toxic anti-cancer therapies.”
– Stephen T. Isaacs, Chairman, President and CEO, Aduro BioTech
“It is an honor to be recognized in the Fierce 15 class of 2014 at BioPharm America and included among this prestigious group of innovative companies. Our biafungin and Cloudbreak programs offer a differentiated approach to treating fungal infections and have the potential to meaningfully impact patients suffering from these diseases. The completion of our $32 million Series A financing earlier this year strongly positions us to advance our biafungin program toward Phase 1 trials and our Cloudbreak platform toward IND-enabling studies in 2015.”
– Jeffrey Stein, PhD, President and CEO, Cidara Therapeutics
“It’s an honor for Cleave Biosciences to be recognized by our industry peers and the journalists at FierceBiotech who chronicle our progress. I raise a toast to our dedicated and creative group of scientists, drug developers, staff, investors and advisors, who are all passionate about discovering and developing novel medicines for people battling cancer.”
– Laura Shawver, PhD, CEO, Cleave Biosciences
“Dimension is honored to be included in the 2014 Fierce 15 for our leadership in advancing AAV gene therapies for rare diseases and is proud to receive the recognition amongst our industry colleagues at BioPharm America. The momentum from the investments made by Fidelity Biosciences and OrbiMed and our partnership with Bayer HealthCare, combined with our renowned team of industry leaders and promising AAV technology based upon the scientific discoveries of REGENX and University of Pennsylvania, strongly position Dimension to advance our pipeline of novel gene therapies and potentially transform the treatment landscape for patients with rare diseases.”
– Annalisa Jenkins, MBBS, MRCP, CEO, Dimension Therapeutics
“We’re honored to be selected as a Fierce 15 company and to be celebrating this achievement at BioPharm America. While these are the early days of genomic medicine, we are working to unlock an entirely new category of novel therapeutic solutions for patients with genetically-driven diseases — and we are committed to broadly and expeditiously realizing that potential.”
– Katrine Bosley, CEO, Editas Medicine
“Being named a Fierce 15 Company is both an honor for Juno and testament to how hard we are working to bring transformative cancer therapies to market. Juno launched as a company less than a year ago and has completed significant Series A and Series B rounds along with important progress in clinical development. This is a wonderful recognition of what Juno has accomplished in a short time, and we look forward to the progress yet to come.”
– Hans Bishop, CEO, Juno Therapeutics, Inc.
“We are very pleased and honored to be selected as a member of the 2014 Fierce 15. Seres Health is committed to bringing life-saving therapies to patients for the treatment of important microbiome-driven diseases and we believe our platform is disruptive and has the ability to create a new treatment paradigm.”
– Roger J. Pomerantz, MD, FACP, President, CEO and Chairman, Seres Health
“Spero is privileged to be selected as a 2014 Fierce 15 company in less than a year of the company being founded. This recognition is a testament to our scientific co-founders, our experienced and highly regarded Scientific Advisory Board, and our internal leadership team — collectively focused on developing whole new classes of anti-infectives for the treatment of severe, drug-resistant infections. We appreciate the opportunity to be included among such a distinguished group of companies and to receive this recognition among industry colleagues at BioPharm America.”
– Ankit Mahadevia, MD, Venture Partner, Atlas Venture, and President, Spero Therapeutics
“We are honored to be recognized for our vision to transform the lives of patients suffering from debilitating, genetic diseases. Since our launch less than one year ago, Spark has made great headway toward developing one-time, life-altering treatments and potentially delivering the first FDA-approved gene therapy to patients suffering from a rare, blinding condition. We look forward to sharing our progress in 2015.”
– Jeffrey Marrazzo, Co-Founder, President and CEO, Spark Therapeutics
“We are honored to be selected as a Fierce 15 biotech company. ADCs and bispecifics hold much promise, particularly for oncology, and Sutro continues to advance antibody therapeutics with improved stability and therapeutic indexes in collaboration with our partners and as part of our own pipeline. Our cell-free protein synthesis technology is uniquely suitable for the development of best-in-class ADCs, including those with two or more mechanistically diverse warheads to potentially address the challenge of drug resistance in cancer.”
– William Newell, CEO, Sutro Biopharma
“Voyager is honored to have been selected as a Fierce 15 biotech company and to receive this award amongst our colleagues at BioPharm America. We continue to make outstanding progress towards our goal of developing breakthrough gene therapies that will make a meaningful difference in the lives of patients.”
– Steven Paul, MD, CEO, Voyager Therapeutics
“Mapp Biopharmaceutical is honored to be selected as a 2014 Fierce 15 extra company. The recognition is a testament to the hard word and dedication of a team of investigators at Ft. Detrick (USAMRIID, NIAID), the Public Health Agency of Canada, Kentucky BioProcessing, Icon Genetics, BOKU, CBR International, and Mapp.”
– Kevin J. Whaley, PhD, CEO, Mapp Biopharmaceutical
BioPharm America takes place this week, September 22–24, at Boston Marriott Copley Place in the center of Boston’s historic Back Bay. At BioPharm America, biotech and pharma executives from around the world identify and enter into strategic relationships that ultimately drive the multibillion dollar drug development industry.
BioPharm America is produced by EBD Group in collaboration with the Massachusetts Biotechnology Council (MassBio) to facilitate strategic collaborations with leading companies. One-to-one networking at BioPharm America™ is powered by partneringONE®, the leading conference networking solution for the life sciences.
To join the conversation:
Visit: BioPharm
America™ webpage
Follow: @EBDGroup
#BPA14
Talk: Life
Science Partnering group
News: partnering360.com/insight
Watch:
youtube.com/EBDGROUPChannel
Blog:
partnering360.com/blog/
About BioPharm America 2014
BioPharm America™ is where biotech industry partnerships get started. Meet face-to-face with biotech and pharma executives from around the world to identify and enter strategic relationships. Equipped with partneringONE®, BioPharm America is the only event in North America based on the same reputable formula as EBD Group’s acclaimed European events BIO-Europe® and BIO-Europe Spring®.
Join partnering360® to kick off your partnering activities before BioPharm America, and throughout the year. partnering360 is a dynamic network of life science industry experts that will enable you to continue the dialogue from your partneringONE meetings at events and identify and connect with new partners anytime, year-round.
Notes to Editors:
Entry to BioPharm America 2014 is free to members of the press, including full access to the partnering system, sessions, press conferences, workshops, and pre-arranged partnering meetings. Members of the media can get registration information on the press registration information page.
An Online Press Kit service for BioPharm America™ 2014 is available to enhance your public relations efforts.
About EBD Group
EBD Group is the leading partnering firm for the global life science industry. Since 1993, biotech, pharma and medical device companies have leveraged EBD Group’s partnering conferences, technology and services to identify business opportunities and develop strategic relationships essential to their success.
EBD Group’s conferences are run with the support of leading corporations and international trade associations and include:
- BIO-Europe® and BIO-Europe Spring®, Europe’s largest life science partnering conferences, supported by the Biotechnology Industry Organization (BIO)
- BioPharm America™, the fastest growing partnering event in North America
- Biotech Showcase™, a unique forum in San Francisco for presenting to investors and business development executives, co-produced with Demy-Colton Life Science Advisors
- BioEquity Europe, the investor conference co-organized with BioCentury Publications and BIO
- ChinaBio® Partnering Forum, the first dedicated biotech/pharma partnering conference in China, co-produced with ChinaBio® LLC
- EuroMedtech™, EBD Group’s partnering event for the innovative medical technology industry
- The Global Impact Forum™, a unique and innovative partnering conference in impact investing and venture philanthropy
EBD Group’s sophisticated web-based partnering service, partneringONE®, is used as the partnering engine at numerous third-party events around the world, and partnering360® is the open online community of life science dealmakers that enhances partnering experiences throughout the year.
EBD Group is an Informa company. Informa is the largest publicly-owned organizer of exhibitions, conferences and training in the world.
EBD Group has offices in the USA and Europe.
For more information please visit www.ebdgroup.com.
About MassBio
www.massbio.org
MassBio, a not-for-profit organization that represents and provides services and support for the Massachusetts biotechnology industry, is the nation's oldest biotechnology trade association. Founded in 1985, MassBio is committed to advancing the development of critical new science, technology and medicines that benefit people worldwide. Representing over 600 biotechnology companies, academic institutions, research hospitals, and service organizations involved in life sciences and health care, MassBio works to advance policy and promote education, while providing member programs and events, industry information, and services.
Photos/Multimedia Gallery Available: http://www.businesswire.com/multimedia/home/20140922005324/en/
