Ardelyx develops novel, first-in-class oral therapeutics to correct mineral metabolism and metabolic disorders. The Companys molecules, whose systemic exposure is severely restricted, target transporters and receptors, modulating the uptake of nutrients or inducing secretion of key hormones to produce a therapeutic benefit in patients. The Companys non-systemic products act from within the intestines to avoid potential side effects that could occur with systemic exposure. The Companys lead product, RDX5791, a minimally-absorbed, orally administered NHE3 sodium transport inhibitor, is being developed both for constipation-predominant irritable bowel syndrome (IBS-C) and for prevention of excess dietary sodium absorption, a new treatment modality for high blood pressure. RDX5791 is in phase 2 for IBS-C and a dose-ranging/regimen study for inhibition of excess dietary sodium absorption. Ardelyx is also developing RDX002, a minimally-absorbed, orally administered NaP2b phosphate transport inhibitor for the inhibition of phosphate absorption in patients with chronic kidney disease, and RDX009, a minimally-absorbed, orally administered TGR5 agonist for the treatment of type 2 diabetes through direct induction of intestinal incretins such as GLP-1 and PYY. Both RDX002 and RDX009 are in preclinical development. To date, Ardelyx has raised $56M in venture and angel funding since it was founded in 2007. Ardelyx is located in Fremont, California.
Mike Raab has been Chief Executive Officer and Chairman of Ardelyx since March 2009. Before Ardelyx, Mike was a partner at New Enterprise Associates (NEA) one of the worlds largest and most successful venture capital firms and specialized in healthcare investments focusing on the biotechnology and pharmaceutical sectors.
Prior to joining NEA in 2002, Mike spent 15 years in commercial and operating leadership roles in the biotech and pharmaceutical industries. He was Senior Vice President, Therapeutics and General Manager of the Renal Division at Genzyme Corporation. He built the Latin American division for Genzyme and was also Senior Product Manager for Genzymes $1+ billion therapies for Gaucher Disease, Ceredase and Cerezyme, and was instrumental in the worldwide launch of both products. Mike also spent two years with Genzymes Diagnostic products and services division.
David has spent the past twenty years developing novel drugs for global registration; during that time he has focused his efforts on non-absorbed, non-systemic new chemical entities.
He began his career at Arthur D. Little (ADL), where he was a senior consultant and study director for over a hundred pharmacology and GLP toxicology studies in a wide variety of therapeutic areas. Since ADL, David has spent his career working for start-up and small pharmaceutical companies.
Most notably, David was Vice President of Preclinical Research and Development at GelTex Pharmaceuticals, where he was integral in the development and approval of two non-absorbed drugs: RenaGel and WelChol.
Most recently, David was Vice President of Drug Development for Trine Pharmaceuticals, where he was developing a novel non-systemic therapeutic for the treatment of IBS. David has filed numerous INDs, met with regulatory agencies around the world, and filed two approved NDAs.
David received a Ph.D.
David M. Mott joined New Enterprise Associates in September 2008 as a General Partner primarily focused on biopharmaceutical investments.
Dave leads NEAs healthcare investing practice which typically comprises around 30% to 40% of each fund, or roughly $750 million to $1 billion of healthcare venture investment dollars every three to four years. The firm invests across all stages and geographies and is a leading investor across all healthcare sectors.
Prior to joining NEA, Dave was President and Chief Executive Officer of MedImmune, subsidiary of AstraZeneca Plc, and Executive Vice President of AstraZeneca. Dave joined MedImmune in 1992 and served in roles of increasing responsibility including Chief Operating Officer, Chief Financial Officer, President and from 2000 Chief Executive Officer as the company grew from a venture-backed startup (founded in 1988) into one of the top five biotechnology companies in the world.
Jean Frchet is Professor of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering at the University of California, Berkeley, and Director of the Organic and Macromolecular Facility of the Molecular Foundry at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. Prior to joining Berkeley, Dr. Frchet was Professor at Cornell University and received Ph.D. degrees from both SUNY and Syracuse University in 1971. He has worked closely with industry throughout his career and is credited with developing the chemically amplified photoresists, essential for today’s manufacturing of semiconductor microprocessors. He has further worked closely with materials and biomedical start-up companies, several of which are now publicly traded companies. Frchet has over 60 patents issued.
David Collier is the Managing Director at CMEA Capital.
David joined CMEA Ventures as a Managing Director in 2001. He currently serves on the Board of Directors of four CMEA portfolio companies: Arcadia Biosciences, Arcion, Sorbent Therapeutics, and VeraLight. He also serves as a Board Observer at Bayhill Therapeutics.
Additionally, David was responsible for CMEA’s investments in Altus Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ: ALTU), Biomimetic Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ: BMTI) and Predix Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ: EPIX).
Previously, David was a Managing Director at Burrill & Company, a private merchant bank focused exclusively on life science companies, where he played a leading role in the management of the company’s life science venture capital funds.
Before joining Burrill, David served as a consultant at Arthur D. Little and Magainin Pharmaceuticals.
Liz Grammer joined Ardelyx as Vice President, Legal in December 2012, after serving as an independent outside corporate counsel for Ardelyx for three years.
Liz brings over 20 years of experience representing privately held and publicly traded life sciences companies in structuring and negotiating strategic transactions, such as collaborations, joint ventures, and intellectual property licensing transactions.
Liz also brings significant experience in providing legal support in connection with all aspects of the research, development and manufacture of pharmaceutical products.
Prior to joining Ardelyx, Liz served as Vice President and General Counsel of Trine Pharmaceuticals, and as General Counsel of GelTex Pharmaceuticals.
Liz started her career in the law firms of Ware & Freidenrich in Palo Alto, and Palmer & Dodge in Boston, in both cases, focusing her efforts on work with emerging life sciences companies.
George Jue has been Vice President, Finance and Operations since he joined us in June 2008. Prior to Ardelyx, he was at Hyperion Therapeutics, where he was the Vice President of Finance and Controller.
Before Hyperion Therapeutics, George worked at VaxGen as the Vice President of Finance. Previously he served as Vice President of Finance and Corporate Controller at PDL BioPharma where he was responsible for the integration of a $500 million acquisition.
His previous roles include Corporate Controller at Scios/Johnson & Johnson, Director of Finance for the Urology Division at Roche BioScience, Senior Group Controller at Genentech Inc. and Associate CFO at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.
George holds a B.S. in Accounting from Bentley College and MBA from Golden Gate University.
Jeff has spent his career in the discovery and development of new chemical entities for the treatment of unmet medical needs. His Discovery experience spans target ID to candidate selection, and his Development Chemistry expertise spans IND-enabling studies to pivotal clinical trials.
Jeff has held positions of increasing responsibility at Affymax, Vicuron and Sunesis, where he was most recently Senior Director of Development Chemistry.
Jeff graduated Magna cum Laude with a B.S. in Chemistry, Honors, from Gonzaga University. He received his Ph.D. in Bioorganic Chemistry at U.C. Berkeley where he started the catalytic antibody program in the laboratory of Professor Peter Schultz.
He is a Damon-Runyon Fellow and an author and inventor on over 50 scientific papers and patents.
In 2003, Dominique co-founded Ilypsa Inc. via a spin-out from Symyx Technologies, Inc. Ilypsa was established to develop polymeric drugs to treat a variety of diseases.
As head of Discovery, he was actively involved in the creation of polymer therapeutics designed to selectively bind phosphate or potassium in the human gastrointestinal tract, as well as in a novel approach to treat diabetes and dyslipidemia. Dominique started his career at Rhone-Poulenc, then Rhodia.
In 2000 he joined Symyx Technologies Inc. where he was in charge of the development of integrated workflows in high throughput discovery targeted to specialty polymers.
Dominique holds an MS in Chemical Engineering from Ecole Nationale Suprieure de Chimie de Paris and a Ph.D. in polymer chemistry from the Ecole Suprieure de Physique et Chimie Industrielle de Paris (ESPCI).
For nearly 10 years, Andy has worked in research and therapeutic development using small molecules, biologics, and small RNAs to target autoimmune, cardio-renal, and gastrointestinal disease.
As an early employee at Ardelyx, he established a multidisciplinary R&D laboratory and managed the RDX5791/AZD1722 program from discovery phase through Phase 2a. He is now working broadly on AZD1722 development through the Ardelyx partnership with AstraZeneca.
Andy holds a B.S. in Chemistry from Hope College and a Ph.D. in Biochemistry from Michigan State University. He was an NIH Postdoctoral Fellow at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute (University of Colorado at Boulder) and the University of Wisconsin at Madison.
Robert Blanks has over 20 years of experience in the pharmaceutical industry in the Quality, Regulatory and CMC areas. A majority of this experience has been with small biotech companies, where he has played a critical role in developing companies initial drug product candidates, including peptides, monoclonal antibodies and small molecules, from the pre-clinical stage to commercial registration.
He was most recently at Flexion Therapeutics as Vice President of CMC, where he oversaw the development of the companys initial two drug product candidates, which recently completed successful phase 2 studies.
Prior to Flexion, he was Vice President of Quality at Idenix Pharmaceuticals overseeing all quality aspects of the commercial launch of the companys first product, Tyzeka.
Previous to Idenix, he served as Vice President of Technical Operations for Trine Pharmaceuticals and Vice President of Technical Operations and Founder of Phaedrus Pharmaceuticals.
Mark has over twenty years of experience in the biopharmaceutical industry in both the U.S. and Canada in business and corporate development roles.
Most recently, Mark was President and CEO of Allostera Pharma Inc., a venture-backed, preclinical company focused on autoimmune diseases where he raised $17 million to develop the companys products.
Prior to joining Allostera, Mark was President and CEO of Celmed BioSciences where he was responsible for raising funds and selling the company in a deal worth over $40M to a European biotechnology company, Kiadis Pharma.
Prior to his role as CEO, he was Chief Operating Officer at Celmed with responsibility for the operations and corporate development of the Company including the progression of Celmed’s three products into Phase I/II human clinical testing, the development of a new business plan for Celmed and its early merger with NewBiotics Inc.
Co-Founder and Director at Ardelyx