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n e w h a v e n b i z . c o m | N o v e m b e r / D e c e m b e r 2 0 1 9 | n e w h a v e n B I Z 21 PERSONAL CURE Continued on Page 22 Visit chelseagroton.com/growthatbusiness or call 860-448-4203 to learn how we can grow that business of yours together. • BUSINESS BANKING • COMMERCIAL LOANS • TREASURY MANAGEMENT SOLUTIONS We're in the business of building dreams. multiple myeloma — the same deadly blood cancer that Kleo is targeting with its first immuno-on- cology drug, CD38-ARM. If all goes as planned, human trials could begin early next year. Rastelli took the job at Kleo aer moving back to New Haven from Boston last year to be closer to his father-in-law during treatment. "It was an amazing coincidence and opportunity," Rastelli says of the position and Kleo's disease target. e Science Park-based startup is pioneering a synthetic compound, or antibody recruiting molecule (ARM), that it touts as more effective and less toxic than current treatments. e ARM "recruits" the body's so-called natural killer cells to go aer tumor cells. Based on the work of Yale scien- tist David Spiegel, the technology helps these antibodies "see" cancer cells that they previously did not recognize and target them for destruction, Rastelli explains. Rastelli said animal studies show the drug has fewer toxic side effects than current treatments. Rastelli says his father-in-law ended up in intensive care twice for pneumo- nia-related issues exacerbated by his weekly IV infusions. "What we are trying to do [eventually] is generate compounds that may be taken by mouth instead of injected, so they don't have this strong type of [negative] reaction," Rastelli said. Rastelli says his father-in-law is hopeful about his work. "He jokingly says, 'I guess one day I'll take your medicine, Luca,' " says Rastelli. "[But] he realizes that we are years away and that for a variety of reasons, it may never happen for him." Rastelli, too, is fully aware of the long odds of his industry (statistics show only one in 10 new drugs ever make it to market) but he is passionate about giving Kleo's com- pounds a place among the world's pharmaceutical success stories. "Ultimately if you are working in this field you believe that what you are doing has a chance of success," he says. "Again, that's why I come to work every day. To actually see the research translated into helping people." Donning the patient's shoes When Marcia Dougan Moore was 13, she watched her grandmother succumb to — breast cancer. "It was really a difficult thing to watch this happen to someone who was just a very vibrant, active person, really because there was no treat- ment available to her," Moore recalls. "It's something that really stuck with me." e loss didn't spark her career in the phar- maceutical industry — a chance encounter with an industry executive on an airplane did that. But it undoubtedly shapes the work she does every day for Science Park-based Arvinas Inc. As vice president of development operations, Moore is overseeing two clinical trials the company has launched to test its potentially game-changing drugs for advanced breast cancer and a treatment-resis- tant form of prostate cancer. Her own family's brush with the disease is never far from her mind. "It gives me pause to think about the human aspects of clinical stud- ies," she says. She instructs members of her team to view the trials "with an eye toward how it's going to feel if you're a patient." "ese people are absolutely essential to compiling the data we need to convince not only our- selves — but any regulatory agency — that we've got a good product," she explains. "You're asking them to not only give up their time but to quite literally give of themselves," she says of the volunteers. "We take blood samples from them, we ask a lot of questions to get information about how they're feeling. And we're doing all that during a very stressful time in their lives." e compounds Arvinas is testing in the trials, ARV-110 and ARV-471, use technology devel- oped by Yale molecular scientist Craig Crews called PROTACs (short for proteolysis-targeting chimeras). Part of a new class of drugs known as protein degrad- ers, they harness the body's own protein-disposal system to attack proteins that are causing disease. Results of the trials are expected next year. Moore is hopeful the work could one day improve life for people with cancer, giving them time and options that eluded her grand- mother decades ago, even if a cure remains elusive. "If we can help someone make it to their daughter's birthday, or the birth of their next grandchild, those are the kinds of things that are meaningful for people," she says. "And if we can get them there in good shape — not with a treat- ment that's going to take a huge toll on their quality of life — that's really important." A brain vacuum cleaner As the son of a pharmacist and a psychiatrist, Vlad Coric spent much of his childhood on the grounds of Norwich State Hospital, the state psychiatric institution that closed its doors in 1996. at exposure sparked a curiosi- ty about the brain and inspired his career in neuropsychiatric research, most notably at Yale, where he led the medical school's neuroscience research unit as well as a research clinic for obsessive-compulsive disorder. It also forms the under- pinnings of his work as CEO of New Haven's Biohaven Pharmaceu- ticals, which is developing drugs for neuropsychiatric diseases. "I never had a stigma of mental illness," explains Coric. "I knew Developing new cancer drugs that can save lives 'is the reason I go to work every day,' says Kleo's Rastelli.

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