Wilson Therapeutics is backed by the Europe based venture capital firm HealthCap and Tactic Pharma will become a significant shareholder in Wilson.
Tactic Pharma was founded in late 2010 by two Northwestern University Chemistry of Life Processes faculty, Andrew P. Mazar, PhD and Thomas V. O’Halloran, PhD, and a former Northwestern student, Chandler D. Robinson, MBA, MSc. Andrew Mazar, Managing Member of Tactic Pharma and one of the inventors of Decuprate stated: “We are very pleased about the transaction with Wilson as they will leverage HealthCap’s strong network in the orphan drug space, having the ability to advance Decuprate through late stage clinical development and hopefully make this compound available to Wilson’s patients around the world within a few years’ time.” Managing Member and CEO of Tactic Pharma, Chandler Robinson, carried out basic research on the first generation version of Decuprate in the laboratory of Thomas O’Halloran and published his findings in the journal Science. The Tactic team acquired the intellectual property rights for Decuprate and received orphan drug designation for Decuprate for use in Wilson’s Disease in August 2011.
Earlier this year, Tactic signed a partnership with Medical Need AB for Decuprate in Europe. Mr. Robinson commented: “I am excited to see Decuprate moving further in development and getting closer to the bedside treating patients.” Wilson Therapeutics AB will be led by HealthCap Venture Partner Jonas Hansson, MSc. Pharm, MBA as CEO, with HealthCap Special Advisor Hugh Rienhoff, MD, PhD as Executive Chairman. Jonas Hansson, says: “We are very excited about moving Decuprate forward, being able to leverage our recent experiences in HealthCap portfolio company Ferrokin, which successfully developed and subsequently sold an iron chelator for the treatment of iron overload to Shire earlier this year”.
About Tactic Pharma LLC- Tactic Pharma acquires and develops pre-clinical and clinical stage compounds. Tactic currently has two development stage compounds in its portfolio.
About Wilson Therapeutics- AB Wilson Therapeutics is a newly established orphan drug company focused on developing novel treatments for Wilson’s Disease
About HealthCap- HealthCap is a family of multi stage venture capital funds, investing globally in life sciences. With committed capital exceeding € 900 million, HealthCap is one of the largest specialized providers of venture capital within life sciences in Europe
