Dec 20, 2021
Chord Therapeutics is a clinical stage pharmaceutical company developing drugs for patients with rare, life-threatening and severely disabling diseases. We are advancing our lead medicinal product candidate CRD1 under orphan drug designation for the treatment of neuromyelitis optica spectrum disorders (NMOSD) and myasthenia gravis (MG).
At Chord Therapeutics, we are dedicated to changing the lives of patients affected by rare diseases that often have no or only limited treatment options.
Cladribine is the active substance in our lead medicinal product candidate CRD1. We are convinced that cladribine’s demonstrated safety and powerful, well-understood pharmacology can provide benefit in a variety of rare disorders.
Chord Therapeutics is run by a small team of experienced professionals. We conduct our drug developments using a well-established virtual biotech business model, outsourcing services to industry-leading specialised vendors. This allows nimble operations and ensures to obtain best quality services in an efficient and cost-effective manner.
We strive to bring new treatments to patients with rare severe neurological disorders. The burden to patients and society of these diseases is the driving force motivating our greatest efforts.
We consider that developing cladribine for indications beyond its current use presents a low risk to patients while offering a high probability of success to equip healthcare providers with powerful options to treat their patients.
The safety and efficacy of cladribine has been demonstrated in thousands of patients with autoimmune and oncologic diseases. Cladribine’s mode of action is well understood.
Chord Therapeutics manages the risk associated with the development of innovative therapies by taking incremental steps and applying proven solutions to new contexts.
At Chord Therapeutics we build our development programs on well-understood active substances with a history of clinical testing and use in human patients. The active substance in our lead medicinal product candidate CRD1 is cladribine.
We carefully select new indications based on a strong scientific rationale for a benefit of the drug's mode of action in the selected disease. Taking a molecule with well-studied safety and pharmacology forward to a new indication significantly reduces risk.
The active substances we use are well known and studied for their safety, over several years of use and among large populations of patients
Knowledge of the molecule’s safety profile from extensive previous experience reduces the risk for patients participating in clinical development and subsequent clinical use. It also allows to minimize undesired side effects.
Drug development is a long and costly process. Allocating resources to development programs with high probability of success is key.
By adapting an existing, safe and proven active substance to new indications, we reduce uncertainties for investors and are able to secure new treatments faster.
We target rare diseases with limited treatment options. We aim to equip physicians with more options to treat their patients.
Our expertise lies in selecting new indications with high medical need and a strong scientific rationale for a treatment benefit from the established pharmacology and safety of our active substance. We believe this type of de-risked innovation can be applied to a number of severe rare autoimmune diseases.
Chord Therapeutics is run by a small team of experienced professionals.
We conduct our drug developments using a well established virtual biotech business model, outsourcing services to highly specialised vendors. This allows nimble operations and ensures to obtain best quality services in an efficient and cost-effective manner.
Claudio is Managing Director at Omega Funds and Managing Partner at NeoMed
Claudio has 20 years of experience in venture capital investing in Europe & US and has served on the boards of numerous companies. He has academic research experience in molecular biology from the Max Planck Institute and the University of Connecticut.
Claudio holds an MBA from Erasmus University, the Netherlands and a PhD from University of Pavia, Italy.
Arthur founded Chord Therapeutics
Arthur has long standing experience in academic research and drug development across a number of pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies worldwide. Arthur is Director of R&D for Parkinson’s UK, President of the Geneva Pharma Network and Director at Keapstone Therapeutics. Utilising his broad experience in drug discovery and development in the neurology area, Arthur continues to drive the creation of new medicines for persons with Parkinson's, neuromyelitis optica and other neurological diseases.
Arthur holds a PhD from Caltech, USA.
Francesco is a Principal at Omega Funds
Francesco is on the investment team at Omega and has extensive experience in venture capital investing in life sciences. Prior to joining Omega, Francesco was on the investment teams of Brookside Mezzanine Partners and Commonfund Capital.
Francesco holds a BBA in Finance and Operations Management from the Isenberg School of Management at UMass Amherst. He is also a CFA charterholder, CAIA charterholder, and a Certified FRM.
Tom is Chief Executive Officer of Chord Therapeutics
Tom brings more than two decades of experience in pharmaceutical R&D, latest as Chief Scientific Officer of the rare disease company Wilson Therapeutics.
Tom’s previous assignments include senior roles at Serono, Merck, and Shire, where he has worked across multiple therapeutic areas, including neuroinflammatory, metabolic, and rare diseases.
Tom holds a PhD from Technical University of Munich, Germany.
Chord Therapeutics is a privately-held biotechnology company based in Geneva, Switzerland, dedicated to developing novel treatments for rare diseases.
CHORD’s initial clinical focus is on neuromyelitis optica spectrum disorders (NMOSD) and myasthenia gravis. We aim at developing the first oral disease-modifying therapies for these indications. The active substance in our lead medicinal product candidate CRD1 is cladribine.
The extensive previous experience with cladribine substantially reduces the risk of our developments. Our cladribine product and development are completely distinct and independent from marketed drug products that contain cladribine as active substance.
Our main investor Omega Funds is committed to help Chord Therapeutics advance its research and create value.
Founded in 2004, Omega Funds is a leading international investment firm that creates and invests in life sciences companies that target our world's most urgent medical needs.
Omega focuses on identifying and supporting companies through value inflection points across the full arc of innovation, from company formation through clinical milestones and commercial adoption.
Omega Funds' portfolio companies have brought 46 products to market in multiple therapeutic areas, including oncology, rare diseases, precision medicine and others.
Please visit www.omegafunds.com for additional information.
