image: The 2024 BRACE Award Venture Competition: The First Prize goes to Concarlo Therapeutics, led by Founder and CEO Stacy Blain, Ph.D. (left). The Second Prize goes to Orphagen Pharmaceuticals, led by its Founder and CEO Scott Thacher, Ph.D. (right).
Credit: Asian Fund for Cancer Research (AFCR)
Hong Kong (5 September 2024) – The Asian Fund for Cancer Research Limited (AFCR) is pleased to announce the winners of the 2024 BRACE Award Venture Competition: the First Prize goes to Concarlo Therapeutics, led by Founder and CEO Stacy Blain, Ph.D., and the Second Prize goes to Orphagen Pharmaceuticals, led by its Founder and CEO Scott Thacher, Ph.D.
AFCR’s BRACE (Bridging Research from Academia to Cancer Entrepreneurship) Award Venture Competition is designed to support and accelerate oncology innovations on their path toward commercialization, aiming to improve outcomes for patients affected by cancer globally. Wit the partnership of AIM-HI Accelerator Fund, we have built an unique program supporting innovative early-stage oncology companies that address cancers prevalent in underserved populations with advisory experts and access to our global network of key opinion leaders and investors.
The 2024 BRACE Venture Competiton Committee reviewed dozens of applications from 10 countries, including Hong Kong, India, Ireland, Israel, Nigeria, Romania, Singapore, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, and the United States. The BRACE Award Venture Competition winner must pass a rigorous evaluation by three of the BRACE program’s blue-ribbon Committees: Selection, Judging, and Investment Due Diligence.
The first prize winner, Concarlo Therapeutics, a preclinical stage biotechnology company, is pioneering a new way to inhibit the three highest value targets in oncology, CDK4/6, and CDK2, creating the elusive triple CDK2/4/6 inhibitor. Their transformative pan-cancer approach will develop medicines to combat drug resistance, which results in more than 10 million cancer deaths worldwide annually. Concarlo Therapeutics has the potential to offer solutions for multiple tumor types and combination treatments. Their small molecule p27 inhibitors are being developed for many tumor types, including pancreatic, esophageal, and ovarian cancers.
The second prize winner, Orphagen Pharmaceuticals, develops first-in-class, small molecule drugs based on previously unexplored targets from the nuclear receptor family. The company’s lead program, OR-449, is an IND-ready, first-in-class small molecule antagonist to SF-1, a candidate tumor driver for pediatric and adult adrenocortical carcinoma (ACC) and the 10-15% of head and neck cancers that are SF-1(high). OR-449 inhibits tumor growth in multiple preclinical models and validates Orphagen’s novel target discovery and development strategy.
In addition, the BRACE Award also conducts a “People’s Choice Award” campaign, voted by the public for the best presentation of video pitch among the 2024 semi-finalists, to promote awareness of innovative cancer technologies. The People’s Choice for Best Pitch goes to Minh-Duy Phan, Ph.D., CEO & Scientific Co-Founder of NexCalibur Therapeutics, a preclinical stage biotechnology company that focuses on developing an innovative platform (NexNeo) to design and produce personalized therapies and preventative vaccines for solid tumor cancers.
“We are honored to be selected by the blue-ribbon committee with the prestigious title of the 2024 BRACE Award Venture Competition First Prize and express our gratitude for the mission of AFCR,” says Concarlo Therapeutics CEO and Founder Dr. Stacy Blain. “On behalf of myself and our entire team, we are grateful to receive this honor from AFCR and the BRACE Award Committee. We will continue our work, , focused on moving our therapies into the clinic in order to improve outcomes for patients with drug resistance cancers.”
“Novel targets and drugs are necessary to combat cancer,” said BRACE Award Venture Competition Selection and Judging Committee Co-Chair Raju Kucherlapati, Ph.D. of Harvard Medical School. “The committee recognizes the potential of Concarlo’s new approach to combat important cancers, that affect patients from around the world. I look forward to following their continued progress as they work to bring their agents to the bedside to help patients.”
“As we enter the 6th year since the inauguration of the BRACE Award Venture Competition, we are proud to be able to provide a valuable network and platform to help and recognize early-stage oncology companies,” Said Dr. Sujuan Ba, Founder and CEO of the Asian Fund for Cancer Research. “The competition continues to advocate and accelerate the development of innovative technologies from the bench to the bedside for cancer patients in Asia and around the world. Concarlo Therapeutics, Orphagen Pharmaceuticals, and NexCalibur Therapeutics represent new hope for cancer patients.”
About the Asian Fund for Cancer Research
The Asian Fund for Cancer Research Limited (AFCR) is a nonprofit organization committed to combatting cancers disproportionately affecting Asian populations. Headquartered in Hong Kong and with a global reach, AFCR is uniquely positioned to investigate the unique causes of cancer in Asian demographics through innovative genetic and molecular research. The organization accelerates cutting-edge cancer research breakthroughs and technologies while developing more potent therapies for cancer patients across Asia and the world. Further information about AFCR can be found at afcr.org.
About AIM-HI Accelerator Fund
The AIM-HI Accelerator Fund (AIM-HI) is a 501(C)(3) non-profit organization created in 2019 by the National Foundation for Cancer Research to provide oncology startups with the resources they need to drive innovative discoveries forward, out of the lab, to the clinics, and eventually to the people battling cancer. Our mission is to bridge the gap between research breakthroughs and clinical trials, aiming to develop innovative cancer therapies and technologies that can save patients’ lives. For more information, visit AIM-HIaccelerator.org.
About the BRACE Award Venture Competition
The Bridging Research from Academia to Cancer Entrepreneurship (BRACE) Award program is designed to provide vital support and network access to early-stage oncology companies, enabling them to accelerate their innovative therapeutics, diagnostics, and cancer prevention products into the clinic, with the ultimate goal of improving outcomes for patients affected by cancer, globally.
The three committee members of the 2024 BRACE Award include the following persons (listed in alphabetical order):
- Anna D. Barker, Ph.D., Chief Strategy Officer, Lawrence J. Ellison Institute of Technology
- Webster K. Cavenee, Ph.D., Distinguished Professor of Medicine, University of California San Diego
- Aleksandra Filipovic, M.D., Ph.D., Head of Oncology, PureTech Health
- Pamela Garzone, Ph.D., Chief Development Officer, Anixa Biosciences
- Dimitra Georganopoulou, Ph.D., General Partner, Qral Ventures
- Gary Gordon, M.D., Ph.D., Senior Medical Advisor and Board Member, Global Coalition for Adaptive Research
- Daniel Johnson, Ph.D., Professor and Vice Chair of Research, Department of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery (OHNS), University of California San Francisco
- Raju Kucherlapati, Ph.D., Paul C. Cabot Professor of Genetics and Professor of Medicine, Harvard Medical School
- Matthew Lawler, Entrepreneur-In-Residence, Blackbird Laboratories
- Brian Leyland-Jones, MBBS, Ph.D., Chief Medical Officer, National Foundation for Cancer Research
- Scott Lippman, M.D., Distinguished Professor of Medicine & Associate Vice Chancellor for Cancer Research, UC San Diego Health
- Jimmy Lu, JD, MBA, Co-Founder and Managing Director, Eos BioInnovation
- Eva Martin, M.D., Senior Director, Alliance and Asset Management, Roche Pharma Partnering
- Gregory W. Mitchell, Ph.D., JD, Of Counsel, Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati
- Kornelia Polyak, MD, Ph.D., Professor of Medicine, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute
- Michael Salgaller, Ph.D., Supervisory Invention Development & Marketing Specialist, National Institutes of Health/National Cancer Institute
- Libia F. Scheller, Ph.D., MBA, Global Head Oncology-Cooperative Groups & Strategic Alliances, Bayer Health Care Pharmaceuticals
- Fei Shen, Ph.D., Managing Director, Boehringer Ingelheim Venture Fund USA
- Matt Tremblay, Ph.D., CEO, Blackbird Laboratories
Past First Prize Winners of the BRACE Award Venture Competition include:
2023 - Degron Therapeutics, Lily Zou, Ph.D., MBA, Co-Founder and CEO
2022 – Believer Pharmaceuticals, Bee Hui Liu, Ph.D., Co-Founder
2021 - Chimera Bioengineering, Gus Zeiner, Ph.D., Co-Founder
2020 – Arbele Bio, Dennis Wong, MD, Chief Development Officer
2019 – DotBio, Ignacio Asial, Ph.D., Founder and CEO
Learn more about the BRACE Award Venture Competition at https://afcr.org/en/Brace-Award/