ShangPharma Innovation

Pykus Therapeutics, Inc. was founded in 2016 to develop a dissolvable intraocular surgical device to make retinal surgery less painful and more successful. The co-founders were ophthalmology residents at the Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary and Harvard Medical School when they developed a novel hydrogel to replace the use of intraocular gas during retinal surgery. This innovation will eliminate the extreme burden placed on patients including the requirement for face-down positioning, inability to see for weeks, and inability to fly for weeks.

Blue Oak Pharmaceuticals is a pharmaceutical company that is committed to finding the next generation of drugs for brain disorders. They believe that first-in-class drugs will be discovered by integrating novel, custom-designed privileged chemotypes with validated in vivo systems neurobiology assays and brain circuit imaging. Blue Oak drug hunters are experts in the systems neurobiology of brain disorders, medicinal chemistry, and informatics. Their productivity integrates a “global research team” that integrates established partners with cutting-edge technologies in behavioral profiling, synthetic chemistry, and brain imaging. They advance first-in-class clinical candidates to early phase proof-of-concept studies using translational medicine biomarkers for brain circuit activity. It was founded in 2016 and is headquartered in Waltham, Massachusetts.

Abcuro’s mission is to develop immune-modulatory bio-therapeutics for treating both autoimmunity and cancer. They leverage the systematic target validation and clinical insights gained by their founders to identify new targets. Their intensive use of bioinformatics to interrogate the transcriptome of human disease together with ex-vivo validation in diseased tissue has uncovered new approaches to target key compartments of the immune system.

Valitor, Inc. has developed novel methods of modifying therapeutic proteins to achieve substantial control over their pharmacokinetics, target specificity and bioactivity. Their technology platform can be broadly applied to improve the pharmacological properties of many protein drugs that are currently approved or under development. They currently have three development pipelines in the fields of dermatology, ophthalmology, and orthopedics that highlight the capabilities of their novel drug products. ​

Skyhawk Therapeutics is a provvider of small molecule therapeutics designed to offer therapies that correct RNA expression.The company's therapeutics use proprietary technology that helps the rational design of small molecules that target specific binding pocket regions on RNA, using both sequence and structural specificity, at particular moments in the RNA splicing process, enabling physicians to target diseases driven by a type of RNA mis-splicing called exon skipping.

Tilos Therapeutics is developing antibody therapeutics that target key immunological pathways, with a primary focus on regulatory T cells and regulation of effector cells. The company's initial work is on antibodies specific for Latency Associated Peptide of TGF beta. Tilos was founded in 2016 and is based in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Rodin Therapeutics, a biotechnology company applying insights of epigenetics to novel therapeutics for neurological disorders, announced its founding by Atlas Venture and Proteros biostructures. Rodin is founded based on its insight into key epigenetic modulators of CNS function, privileged access to Proteros' best-in-class structural biology capabilities, and a team with deep CNS drug development and company formation experience. Rodin secured financing from Atlas Venture and Johnson & Johnson Development Corporation (JJDC).

Quartet Medicine is a private, biotechnology company focused on discovering and developing novel treatments for chronic pain and inflammation. Human genetics and preclinical target validation data point to increased tetrahydrobiopterin (BH4) as a critical mediator of peripheral nerve dysfunction and immune cell regulation. Quartet is capitalizing on these insights by safely restoring BH4 homeostasis in neuronal and inflammatory cells. Quartet was founded by scientists at Boston Children’s Hospital and École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL) in Switzerland in conjunction with Atlas Venture. Quartet’s Series A investors included Atlas Venture, Novartis Venture Funds, Pfizer Venture Investments and Partners Innovation Fund. The company is based in Cambridge, Massachusetts and has research efforts underway with collaborators in Europe and Asia