Two Venture Leaders to Co-Chair ESE 2006 |
Two leaders in the venture capital community on the East Coast, Joshua Grotstein, Managing Partner for SAS Investors, and Sean Sebastian, Partner at Birchmere Ventures, will Co-Chair the Early Stage East 2006 Venture Capital Conference to be held on May 8th & 9th. Both Mr. Grotstein and Mr. Sebastian excel as venture capitalists and bring their leadership to support geographically the largest venture conference from New England to North Carolina focused on accelerating opportunities for early stage companies.
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Volume 4, December 2005 Issue |
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“The Early Stage East conference is consistently one of the country’s pre-eminent venues for early stage deal flow,” noted Mr. Grotstein. “I’m excited to be part of the committee planning the 2006 conference, which I’m certain will feature many world-class start-up’s.”
Mr. Sebastian said, “As Mid-Atlantic early stage investors, Birchmere has long considered Early Stage East a ‘must attend’ conference, and I’m honored to serve as co-chair of this great event.”
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Companies to Watch: Melior
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Within months of appearing at Bio
Life Tech and Melior’s launch of its Indications
Discovery platform, Melior Discovery has identified
two new indications, irritable bowel syndrome and
metabolic syndrome, for compounds previously developed
through late-stage clinical trials. Melior has filed
patents on these two compounds and will further develop
them for their new therapeutic indications. “We appreciate the effort of Early Stage East in preparing us for a rewarding experience presenting at Bio Life Tech 2005,” said Andrew Reaume, PhD, President and Chief Executive Officer for Melior Discovery. “The conference was well attended by early-stage venture firms and allowed us to generate interest toward our Series A fund raising efforts.”
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“We appreciate the effort of Early Stage East in preparing us for a rewarding experience presenting at Bio Life Tech 2005. The conference was well attended by early-stage venture firms and allowed us to generate interest toward our Series A fund raising efforts.”
Andrew Reaume, PhD
President and CEO
Melior Discovery
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“The distinct advantage to our Indications Discovery platform is that our starting point is compounds that have already been clinically proven to be safe in humans. However, the compounds were discontinued due to lack of efficacy for the indication previously under study. In selecting such compounds, Melior leverages the millions of dollars and years invested, as well as the positive safety data already generated in developing the “abandoned” compounds. By applying our Indications Discovery screening platform using in vivo disease models, we are able to quickly ascertain alternative indications that propose a high probability of clinical success with a quick pathway to market. There are many examples of blockbuster drugs that were initially developed for indications other than those which they were eventually approved, such as Viagra®, Gemzar® and Evista®. “
“Since Melior was launched in June 2005, we have scaled our platform to thirty animal models and executed four collaborative arrangements. Of critical note -- two out of the first three molecules that we have run through our Indications Discovery platform yielded alternative indications. The newly uncovered indications were in irritable bowel syndrome and metabolic syndrome, with compounds that were previously developed through Phase II and Phase III, respectively. We have filed patents on these compounds and will
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