Acceleron Pharma

Acceleron Pharma, Inc.
Traded as NASDAQ: XLRN
Industry pharmaceutical
Founded December 2003
Headquarters Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States
Key people
 Christoph Westphal (CEO; 2003– )
Owners

As of August 2013:[1]

Website acceleronpharma.com

Acceleron Pharma, Inc. is a public American "clinical stage biopharmaceutical company" based in Boston, Massachusetts with a broad focus on cancer and rare diseases.[2]

History

Tom Maniatis, Mark Ptashne and Wylie Vale formed the company in Cambridge, Massachusetts.[3][4] The company began with a venture capital investment and opened its first laboratory in December 2003.[3]

The company tendered an initial public offering in September 2013.[5]:Table 1

Corporate governance

The founding chief executive officer of Acceleron was Christoph Westphal, who was a general partner at Acceleron's biggest investor, Polaris Partners as the time.[6][7]

Among members of the board of directors is Terry McGuire (2005– ), who represents Acceleron's biggest investor, Polaris Partners.[1]

Drug development pipeline

Sotatercept "is a chimeric protein containing the extracellular domain of the activin receptor 2A (ACVR2A) fused to the Fc domain of human IgG1."[8] This therapeutic is under development with Celgene and has undergone clinical evaluation for the treatement of beta-thalassemia.[9]

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 Alspach, Kyle (7 August 2013). "VC-backed Acceleron Pharma files IPO plans". Boston Business Journal.
  2. ↑ "XLRN stock quote". NASDAQ. Company Description (as filed with the SEC). Retrieved March 31, 2014.
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 Cooke, Philip, ed. (2007). "Local clusters and global networks". Regional Knowledge Economies (Google eBook). New horizons in regional science. United Kingdom: Edward Elgar Publishing. p. 79. ISBN 9781847206930.
  4. ↑ McLellan, Dennis (January 18, 2012). "Wylie W. Vale Jr. dies at 70; researcher helped discover stress hormone". Los Angeles Times.
  5. ↑ Huggett, Brady (December 2013). "Burning Bright". Nature Biotechnology 31 (12). pp. 1068–71.
  6. ↑ "Acceleron Pharma, Developing Drugs to Treat Musculoskeletal and Metabolic Disorders, Secures $25 Million in Series A Funding" (PDF) (Press release). Acceleron. 13 February 2004.
  7. ↑ "Christoph Westphal, Sirtris". Pharmaceutical Executive (Advanstar Communications). 1 June 2008.
  8. ↑ Raje, N.; Vallet, S. (October 2010). "Sotatercept, a soluble activin receptor type 2A IgG-Fc fusion protein for the treatment of anemia and bone loss". Current Opinion in Molecular Therapeutics (abstract) 12: 586–97. PMID 20886391.
  9. ↑ "Beta-Thalassemia". Clinical Trials. Genetic Engineering & Biotechnology News 34 (1). 1 January 2014. p. 32.